Here I am, 21, unemployed, probably going to college soon.

I've deadset my goals on working in the gaming industry. Mainly to come up with the characters/story/gameplay/etc.

Since coming here, I've learned that theres no place for those kinds of people.

I took up programming in....2010 I believe, and haven't really began learning much until recently (I decided to stick to a book and focus on learning C# first, before learning XNA, but I'm learning slower than I should, and my problem solving skills are....utter crap I would think.)

I've always wanted to be able to draw, for my own concept art/just for the sheer fun of it. And I can't draw for crap either.

Seeing as both require massive dedication/studying/work. Am I working towards disappointment trying to be at least GOOD at both of these things?

I've deadset my goals on working in the gaming industry.

Why?

Because, I grew up as a gamer /typical answer. For one

For the non typical answer. I want to bring some variety back into the game business. The oversaturation of FPS, and the companies bs way of screwing people out of full games, making them buy DLC make me cringe.

Not to mention, I want to use it was a way to bring my creative side to life.

You sound like an older version of myself :/

Just wait until you get into the engineering element. On any large scale project, you'll spend months writing programming / design architecture with out actually writing a single line of code.
A simple game takes me almost a week to write the engineering for.

Just wait until you get into the engineering element. On any large scale project, you'll spend months writing programming / design architecture with out actually writing a single line of code.
A simple game takes me almost a week to write the engineering for.

I continue to learn programming, I just don't know if I have the problem solving skills/smarts to be a good game programmer. And being a concept artist probably won't get me anywhere. I want to be directly involved with gameplay/etc. And I want MY ideas to come to life, and it seems like becoming a programmer myself is the only way i'll accomplish that.

But, you're basically saying, if I am struggling now, I should probably quit while I'm ahead because it only gets worse >_>

I mean, I am understanding what most of the code does. But when it comes time to put the code together myself, coming up with variables/numbers/etc for the thing I am working on, I tend to crumble/feel like Idk how the heck to accomplish it, etc. It's very irritating to me.

So, sounds like you want to keep programming until you get it, until you figure out some kink in your understanding.

What I was talking about is writing out everything a game / program will do, and how it will be done in meticulous detail. This part involves no programming, however it requires a good knowledge of how programming works.
A simple game can take some one over a year to create. If your unwilling to put in the time to make it happen, programming may not be for you.

And I want MY ideas to come to life, and it seems like becoming a programmer myself is the only way i'll accomplish that.

Unfortunately yes. Even if, let's say, you are already in the game industry, know some people who can make the game for you, you will still find this fact to be, in fact, true. It is hard to team up and make a game. Even if you have all the skills, found people to do that, the motivation to get there is enormous. Unless money is involved, it is really difficult to team up with anyone and make anything.

But, you're basically saying, if I am struggling now, I should probably quit while I'm ahead because it only gets worse >_>
[/quote]

The passion that drives you forward is not the same passion that makes a programmer a great programmer. That's why you find it difficult to push and be better. You are learning programming for the wrong reason. You want to make an FPS. A year of programming won't be enough to take you there. You either need to keep pursuing as programmer, or give up and go with the QA route.