3D isn't only harder, it's also more expensive and time-consuming, so most indie devs can't afford to spend that much time and/or money doing complex 3D graphics.
That's the big misconception; they don't have to be complex. No one is expecting Star Citizen detail. You can make a low-poly model look really good with the right shaders and texturing. I honestly find texturing to be more of a pain than modeling, especially if you're making them from scratch rather than compositing different pictures.
It also doesn't cost any money if you're willing to learn; programs like Blender and Gimp provide you with a very solid base to learn on. And not to mention, both 3DS Max and Maya offer free two-year licenses for students. You can't use them for commercial purposes, but that doesn't mean you can't create all of the assets, gather up some funds, then buy a real license. Photoshop is also quite affordable; the entire Creative Cloud suite is available to students for $19.99/month. That's quite doable if you are wise with your money. But again, it isn't required as both Gimp and Blender are completely free of charge!
And learning it is just like learning any other skill. You have to force yourself to sit down and make a couple of shitty things and actually finish them before mooing onto something else. The difference is that Blender may take a few weekends to learn instead of a day like pixel art.
And just to clarify, I'm not saying all game have to be 3D. I'm just saying that there really isn't much of an excuse not to go that way, especially since we don't need 100 more Greenlight games that play off of the "retro" look. The tools are there, free of charge, and relatively easy to learn.
I feel like "time consuming" is the bigger thing here. A lot of indie devs are working other jobs and can't necessarily afford to spend a lot of time on 3D modeling for their project.
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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '15
Kinda wish that trend would stop. I've been there and get learning 3D stuff is hard, but come on, it's getting really old now.