...users are NEVER able to compete graphically with the best out there. its just not possible. in general, most indies cant compete with a multi million dollar production, simply because development is expensive.
Most indies cannot but it is possible. Did you ever play the game Trine? It was beautiful, more detailed than many big productions.
And then there are still big indies like Valve with very nice productions.
In the end it has nothing to do with indies, it is a problem of budget, passion and time you spend.
Regarding the brownish base tone: I don't like it. I was so disappointed as I saw Unreal Tournament 3 with this muddy molten mash. They created so much nice details with polygons and textures but it got lost in this colour monotony.
Another interesting fact is that many new indie games on Steam come with a blocky wireframe look. I personally dont like it at all. But they dont stop ton continue this way. In the end these kind of games have to compete with the blocky look of the LEGO games and this is hard to achieve. LEGO games are well made.
