Cheap, casual gamer, 2 hour game, not worth my time. Those are the best words to describe them.

This is what I'd go with too. Child of Light etc IMO aren't indie games, even though they have the production values that make them feel the same as a lot of indie games.

Basically, indie is where nobody else has a say/calls the shots with more authority than your creative freedom.

Sometimes they intentionally make them look as bad as 8bit games for some odd reason.

You're right, that would mean it wasn't an indie game.  We've come to refer to the term incorrectly as a way to define smaller projects.  It's one of those things were everyone's going to do what they're going to do and I'm not going to get on their case about it, though at the end of the day there really is a correct answer, technically.

Sometimes I'll just refer to smaller games as "download games."  That's not always accurate either, as sometimes they get box releases, but I think it's closer to being an accurate way to categorize them.

Indy are selfunded games without a publisher who can't afford a retail release hence they don't get my money. Also indie means 99% garbage making the 1% look bad.

But that looks good? :P

There are various reasons why a lot of  indie devs choose this approach. Some of it is that it's an easy, but also nostalgic and identifyable direction. There's a lot of more complex but far worse looking 2D and 3D art styles that they could replicate.

The game you've chosen, everything is done by 1 person. I think we should be cutting him a bit of slack in the graphics department. As long as they're functional and you know what you're doing, I don't see a problem. In fact, I actually do like the visuals in that game.

Not backed by a major publisher.

You bust have incredibly low standards for what makes a AA game, because I have never seen an indie game even come close to AA quality, that being a game like Bayonetta 1/2, Vanquish, SM3DW, Unfamous, Sunset Overdrive, etc.

Also, it costs less time, resources, and money to make retro-style games. That's why they do it.

I made this thread a long time ago.

In my honest opinion, an indie game is a game made by an independent developer, without any kind of help of bigger companies or publishers aside from publishing the game (I find this step acceptable).

That's the only requisite, really. Budget, team size or time poured into developing does not void an indie status, if that game is made from scratch to the end from an independent developer.

Star Citizen is an indie game (crowd-funded and self-published).