Anybody who has been significantly involved in the dev process for a shipped, real-world commercial title (mainstream, indie, or otherwise) is often going to have more game design experience than any gamer, journalist, critic, or even any graduate from a game design school out there. Now, that doesn't prove they're particularly good at it (the longer I've been at it, the more I know how much I suck at it myself), but I'd not bias my opinion against them because they don't have "designer" next to their name.
That's an assumption I'm not prepared to make. Also, there's nothing to suggest I'm "biased against" - simply because I don't automatically assume they understand game design and want to create a strong one. There's zero basis for such an assumption.
I have no way of knowing what their design experience is - except to look at their credentials. Now, by looking at the industry - I see a zillion AAA designers who either can't design worth shit - or don't care about it, or CAN'T care about it.
So, even if they WERE game designers - it wouldn't be much comfort.
I have to see what they intend to do, before I can start to get excited. Again, if they want to finish this within a few months - I doubt we'll get a deep/complex game design. Because such things aren't trivial and they require a passion for the concept of a deep/complex game. For a game that's supposed to be done soon, I think it's pretty worrying when the developers can't answer a single question related to design, and instead say something like "we really don't know, but we do intend to have something good."
That suggests, to me anyway, that they expect the design process to be trivial or non-vital.
Absolutely nothing I've seen from them tells me they want to create a deep or complex game.
They seem to be extremely focused on a game that looks professional and non-indie - which makes a lot of sense. Because a game like this with beautiful graphics is bound to sell like hot-cakes.
Why? I have no idea. But the level of support based on visuals alone is staggering. I find that pretty sad, personally. That's probably because I think the indie segment is ideal for deep and complex games, and that's why I'd hope people would care about that before they started caring about visuals.
Still, I hope I'm wrong - and I hope we get a reasonably deep game. In which case, I'd be more than happy to admit my mistake - and give my support to these guys.