How to Balance the two?

[Ninjus]

My career goal is to develop my own game company so I have been trying to get good at more than one thing that is required to make them. I have been trying to work between programming and doing artwork, but it just seems to make me frustrated. I am currently in college majoring in Computer Science. I think that maybe I should focus on programming till i graduate, then start working more on practicing game art. Any suggestions appreciated!

[rikfuzz]

Personally I focus more on my artwork, and do a lot of 'bad' or lazy code with help from authoring tools etc, but you've probably got the right approach for your situation.  I mean, you're majoring in Computer Science, so you can't afford to put that in the back seat at least till you're done there. 

My personal reasoning is that nobody sees behind the scenes, and can't tell if I'm doing things badly in the code as long as it's all working from the gameplay.  They can see the graphics though, so I avoid 'programer art' more than I avoid 'artist's code'.  And I could always use my poorly coded version as a prototype if I needed to remake it, the assets take the longest and that part would be taken care of.  In your case though, I think you're doing things right. 

I have a lot of coder friends that can help out too, so if you were mirroring my situation you could get help on your art from people here quite readily. 

Not to say I totally neglect doing some good code or that you can't put your all into your artwork on occasion, just overall priority I guess. 

[Seiseki]

rikfuzz, it all depends on what level you're coding.

Physics, multiplayer coding, fancy graphics shaders or even coding your own physics and graphics engine. Those are things that require lots of time and experience and even more time if you lack the experience.
And it would be really hard to 'hack' your way through something like that.

Stick with the coding! Artists are quite easy to find, and are usually a lot cheaper than a high level coder.
But games isn't just about coding and art, you'll want to start thinking about game design too.
Game design is probably the most important part, since it ties everything together.

[rikfuzz]

rikfuzz, it all depends on what level you're coding.

Physics, multiplayer coding, fancy graphics shaders or even coding your own physics and graphics engine. Those are things that require lots of time and experience and even more time if you lack the experience.
And it would be really hard to 'hack' your way through something like that.

I do agree, kind of, especially if you want to code them from scratch, but there's really no harm using unity's inbuilt physics engine or box 2d or whatever suits, and shaders are pretty easy to code with heaps of example code all over the internet.  Multiplayer's a bit more involved, but there are still out of the box solutions and stuff, I've done it before with a plugin for MMF called MooClick (although just prototype stuff).  As long as you can't tell any coding shortcomings from the finished product you should probably be judging the game's worth on artistic merit and mostly as you say, gameplay.

[Ninjus]

Thank you for the feedback

[Seiseki]

As long as you can't tell any coding shortcomings from the finished product you should probably be judging the game's worth on artistic merit and mostly as you say, gameplay.

Of course.
But as a developer you need to factor in the development time and not just the end product. Also if you lack in programming knowledge you might have to do a lot of compromises depending on what you want to achieve.
It all depends on the scope of your projects.

@Ninjus
As a programmer it's still worth learning the basics of drawing and animation.
Not so you can make awesome graphics, but so you can understand how it works and fits into the game.

Also, if you've never been "visually creatively active" in some way, by drawing, modeling, figure painting, etc. It's pretty hard to just learn how to draw and make graphics.
It's also possible that your brain doesn't think in images. If you have a hard time imagining objects, images, people in your head then it will be even harder to learn how to draw.
Not saying this to crush your dreams or anything it's just that it seems like you think art is some kind of necessary evil you have to learn to make games. If you'd rather code, focus on that instead

edit: Looking at your stuff, you're already way above programming art! If you want to be an artist then go for it. Just practice a lot and you will improve.
 

[rikfuzz]

Of course.
But as a developer you need to factor in the development time and not just the end product. Also if you lack in programming knowledge you might have to do a lot of compromises depending on what you want to achieve.
It all depends on the scope of your projects.

I agree, it's just a matter of personal priority.  Obviously if you want to make your own games without sharing creative input there's a minimum amount of investment in both areas, neither can be totally neglected. 

@Ninjus

Yeah, I've seen much worse artwork in the occasional commercial titles skirting by just by being retro/pixel/'8-bit'.  Keep it up, it'll improve naturally.

[Kasumi]

My approach isn't particularly good for deadlines but: I work on one until it becomes unbearable/hard/unbearably hard, then switch. Usually by the time I switch, I'm able to see past whatever issue had me stuck. I do keep the other in the back of my mind, though.

I also switch when I can no longer have clear direction with the other.

Stuff like: Ugh, I have to rewrite my map editor because I didn't think I'd need to count tile use across sets. I think I'll draw.
Ugh, this animation is going nowhere. I think I should just fix the map editor.
The map editor is done, but now I'm not sure where I want to take the game. I'll finish this enemy animation.
etc.

*shrug* It works for me, but I doubt I'd be great in a team setting like that.

[brucele]

It's depend on yourself.

[Ninjus]

Thank you for all the feedback everyone, I am going to focus on finishing my computer science degree in college. I will be also working on game design and doing pixel art weekly as a hobby to continue improving while having less pressure doing it.