Evolved creature

The creature evolves from a tadpole to a froglet after collecting enough energy, I took inspiration from this picture of a froglet:

Updates to enemy sprites

Instead of a static object I animated the newts legs and tail

First evolution enemy sprite

Newts eat tadpoles so the enemies in the first stage are newts. I took inspiration from this picture of a newt.

Projectile sprite

For the first stages of evolution the creature will fight enemies by firing a slime like projectile. I couldn’t find any inspirational images so I just made something I think looks good. 

Coin sprite

I made a sprite like the original coins from Mario but I made it rounder and more gold.

Energy sprite

I took inspiration from The Flashes logo to make the lightning bolt shape for the energy that is used for upgrading your creature.

First player sprite creation

The first creature will be a tadpole, I took inspiration from this picture:

Making the first base sprite

I took inspiration from the Minecraft lily pad and made a smaller, rounder, brighter version which will be used as your base in the first stage.