We at Ogre Pixel work with “basic sprites” first, creating a basic sprite is easy and quick, this allows the programmer to start coding with it, then, while the programmer is coding, the final sprite can be done at the same time.

Here is an example of a WIP boss behaviour with the “basic “ sprites on it:

And this is how the final sprite would look like (we added an animation to the Big Calab too for the final version)

Then, when the final sprite is done it can just be replaced in the game with the result of the final sprite and behaviour done =)