Good statements (apart from the Launcher wich can have simply technical reasons).
Especially about the horrible misuse of shaders and high poly models.
Beside that, you mostly don't have the resources a big company has. You can't afford high polyogn models with photorealistic textures and everything and you certainly can't do it alone. Its impossible to compete alone against a large studio with up to hundreds of professionals, each one having one very specific task. As you don't copy this aspect, don't bother with copying just the bad stuff they do.
This I would tell to any Indy dev who buys these high-poly models.
They spend like 50€ for 2 characters in high quality, while
then running out of budget and using some low-poly or
low resolution assets with a completely different style
wich they clamp together from everywhere.
Resulting in a totally inconsistant look. Like a Monty Python collage.
The reason is simply that they cant in a reasonable timeframe
create (or let create for "free") enough models of the same quality for
a game bigger than a short prototype.
Indies dont have the time to create by themself artwok in that quality in that amount while keeping consistant.
They will loose motivation quickly. And there is not a monthly payslip compensating for that.
I doubt that every Indy has the endurance like a Harry P to
work on that for years to get a full set of high quality assets.
Deciding on a graphical style early wich looks good but can be
also realized for a FULL game is one of the most important
steps in developing a (Indy) game.
If you buy an Artpack, look for affortable pack(s) that offers
80% of the modeltypes you will need in the same quality and artstyle.
Preferably from the same Artist or Stylegroup.
The rest could be done by adapting and modifying them for
the remaining assets.
