I was very interested to see that the team they pitched included only 11 people, including designers and illustrators. Only three programmers ('One chief programmer and two junior programmers').

Am I correct in thinking that a team this size would be considered closer to an indy game in 2016? I am not a game developer but this seems like a very stark comparison to the current landscape / size of software teams (not just limited to games).

First release was December 31, 1996. So nearly 3 years, instead of 1!

The way they talk about their Dynamic Random Level Generation suggests they probably already somewhat developed it (and probably other aspects of the game) as a proof of concept.