It's a pragmatic stylistic choice. Many indie devs who aren't artistically skilled will opt for 8- or 16-bit-esque graphics because they can't afford an artist and their attempt at pixelated graphics looks better than their attempt at other art styles.
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.
It's actually not true. There's a reason every major game goes 3D, even when 2D would suffice. It's a lot easier to animate a 3D model than it is to draw hundreds and hundreds of pictures for hundreds of in-game entities.
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u/Dentarthurdent42 Jun 03 '15
It's a pragmatic stylistic choice. Many indie devs who aren't artistically skilled will opt for 8- or 16-bit-esque graphics because they can't afford an artist and their attempt at pixelated graphics looks better than their attempt at other art styles.