We are so glad you understand the issue well and truly hope you inderstand that this is not personal nor held against you in any way. Art that brings up discussion is always the best kind of art.
We are sending back because even tho only a few posted their opinion here many more came as PMs and the PJ community consensus is clear even tho there is not a lot of 'borrowing' going on there is enough to best not add it.

As said earlier, I've got no issue with taking it down if that's the decision, or "citing" my sources in the description (for greater visibility) to clarify which parts of this I made from scratch.

Either way, thanks for taking time out to give it due consideration.

I have just realized the title of the piece at first glance reads Cave Nigger Story :D

Agree with -DE-. Seems to me like adding this to the gallery will result in a lot of discontent and discussion about what goes. Schazer seems to be really cool about it and says that it's not a big deal if it's not allowed in the gallery. This makes the decision even easier.

If it's made up of parts created by someone else and without prior consent of the original author, I say it shouldn't be allowed. Sprite edits and frankensteining are some of the easiest methods of sprite creation and require little to no actual technique, and signing someone else's work, or parts thereof, with your name is tantamount to plagiarism.

Now, making something from scratch in someone else's style is a different story.

Wow! this is a tough one
Generally speaking edits of any kind is uncool for the gallery for many reasons with the main one being that edits imply stealing other's work and art galleries can't allow this sort of thing as a main directive.
Here I don't see a lot of RIPing except maybe the walk cycle/legs. It also seems quite original and just ref'd.
I will ask other PJers for input and feedback before making a final decision, k.

In this case, it'd mean an edit of someone else's work - Daisuke Amaya's, the artist for Cave Story and (I'm pretty sure) Cave Story+, the latter's graphics I used as a base to make this.

Assets I took directly from Cave Story Plus spritesheets:

- Base sprite and walk cycle [link]

- The white "explosion" animation

- The round green ammo (modified from the Bubbler, an in-game weapon)

Stuff I did from scratch:

-Shoulder armaments and their rotation+firing animation, made to resemble the Risk of Rain Engineer's Thermal Harpoon attack.

'sprite edits'
Does this mean an edit of an original pixel sprite created by you or created by someone else?