Hiring the wrong person is never bad for a project. There hasn't ever been a project that has failed completely because of an addition to the team that just messed around. Artists that work for free are always motivated, and don't leave projects at crucial times. It's always possible to just start again without any problems, and you can repeat the hiring of a free artist indefinitely and still keep people interested in the project. Artists are always ready to meet halfway, though that isn't even necessary since they already share the team's vision. Judging by what I've read and heard, all of the statements I just made are false.

A while ago I heard a company owner complain that hiring people is hard because hiring the wrong person can lead to the whole company going down.

..but I guess not being omniscient and hence not immediately knowing who to let get involved with your project is lazy. There are TONS of people who'd invest your money properly and make a lot of money for you, so there's no real reason not to give your savings to the guy who says that he'll invest 'em in a sure to pay off company. You know, because gamers really understand and have patience when you explain to 'em that your nice sounding indie title will be delayed for 4 years because of internal strife in the team. They'll also understand if you used to have nice looking shots on your site but release a game that doesn't look anything like it because the artist left.

Anyway, I don't think it's that simple.

Yeah, good thing that time is gone.
But some of the studios back then were smaller than many "indies" companies nowadays.

There could be copy and paste indie projects aswell.

There are hundreds of them already.

Ugh, indy graphics, they are so vomit inducing to me. You have basically two extremes when it comes to indy games: the retro and the unique.

The retro style is when you use chiptune music and pixel art just for the sake of invoking retro nostalgia. The problem with this is that the old games we remember as classics were not using chiptune music and pixel art because it was cool but because it was the best they could do. However, they used those limitations to inspire the player's imagination, to see more than what is actually on the screen. They had meaty sound effects, upbeat rock&roll soundtracks, vibrant colours and they masterfully used the colour palette to create great adventures in our mind.
Atari already had meaty sound effects for explosions (which is why most Atari games were about explosions) and as technology got better developers could flesh out the atomosphere more. When I play Castlevania all the washed out colours, the cool music and the *fwoosh* sound of the whip creat a really intense immersive experience.

Now when you look at something like VVVVVV (stupid name) or Fez, there is none of that there. it's just pandering to retro nostalgia, but no one would have made such a game in the 80s, it would have been lame. I mean, what is going on there? Am i on a space ship? If so, why are there spikes everywhere, no one would build such a space ship. Why doesn't my guy look like an astronaut? See, there is nothing that invokes a feeling of adventure, or any other feeling for that matter aside from retro nostalgia. I guess if you grew up with those old games it might do something for you, but I didn't. Yet I have no problem getting into NES games like Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Contra of Ninja Gaiden even though I never played those as a child.

Then you have the unique ones, games like Braid where obviously a ton of effort was put into the presentation, but it's still lame. Why am I some guy in a suit jumping on disfigured goomas collecting puzzle pieces? And don't give me any of that pretentious crap like how it's all a metaphor or anything. There is no excitement, there is no adventure. Even the music is something that puts you asleep and the puzzles are just dumb. Yes, Braid and all its immitators have tons of effort put into the presentation, but it doesn't help when the presentation is more boring than watching paint dry.

You really don't need a AAA budget to make a cool looking game. if something like Castlevania could do it in the 80s on much more limited hardware in Assembler then I'm sure you can find someone who knows how to use a pencil. Then again, when an indy developer finds someone who knows how to use a pencil that person goes crazy and creates a "unique" game that puts you to sleep. Pick your poison.

You've missed a lot in that post. There's a ton of idie games that just have functional graphics, some worse (Avadon,) some better (FTL,) some downright creepy (Binding of Isaac.) From your post it looks like you've played a grand total of 2 indie games in your life.

there are s lot of them, however there are also a lot which are not. Restricting which games are allowed or not on the PC is the best way to make sure you only do get only one type of games in the end.

Binding of Isaac has amazing visuals.

Agreed. I have enjoyed some decent, unique indies on pc. I was just trying to point out that in terms of graphics, competing on the pc (for a dev) might not be the best place to put their game.

Saying that though, i bet mobile phone graphics have caught up with/surpassed some of these indie title graphics.

That's true, the seal of quality was specifically created to deal with the problem of low quality independent games flooding the market and ultimately burying the higher quality releases of the time.

+1

It's funny how you basically counter your own point: anyone can leave a project, even friends (ESPECIALLY friends) - that's the inherent risk of a project. Saying you shouldn't hire anyone just because they might leave is a laughable excuse if I ever heard one - that's why you do job interviews and find the right candidate. Maybe we should go to every company and tell the bosses that they should fire everyone and do it all themselves because, imagine, their employees might leave for a better job!

Seriously, loads of people would join a good project because they need to prove themselves, because they dream of being a game art designer, because they simply LOVE doing it. Yes, they may leave (especially if your project is run like shit and you don't properly support them they might) but that's a risk you take with anyone working on any project. Use your brains and have them sign something saying that they can't use any art they created for the game for anything else including their portfolio unless they stick with the project if you're that worried. Also, don't sit on your ass and have a standby in case something happens - work with TWO designers that each do different areas of the art (UI, animation, backdrops) so that if one leaves, the other could take over. THINK. Manage your project properly!

Honestly, indie devs don't have to be incompetent in how they run their project, you know. Sadly enough, many lack any business sense or street smarts - and trust me, hiring friends is a bad bad bad BAD thing to do. If you're that scared of taking your own project seriously and instead cripple part of it by not taking any risks, don't bother with the project in the first place. Oh ... and the weak excuses ... first it's about costing too much money, then when people offer to work for royalties, it's suddenly about not wanting "strangers" (*rolls eyes*) to be involved and then it's because they might leave ... wow, imagine that! It's one thing to reduce unnecessary risks, but a butt ugly game with barely any decent sounds or music is not something you sacrifice. Cutting corners doesn't do you any favours.