I have always been a software developer, but lately I've been wanting to get into games. The only thing stopping me is the fact that I'm a programmer, not an artist. I've made some simple stuff, Tetris, 2D chess things like that but I can't do much art and that's really what holds me back.

Now the problem is, I've yet to go to college so most commercial projects wouldn't accept me even to work for free and learn a bit especially with my lack of experience in games and any indie projects I've looked into really have an issue with responding to people interested, or actually completing (or starting really, most don't get past the ideas on paper) the project they want to do. I've looked around locally for artists, anyone who can do modeling, textures or animating or even anyone with some ability to make some more advanced 2D assets to get something like a side-scrolling RPG or something but haven't been able to find anyone.

So how do you guys do it? Do I really just have to wait until I can go to college to see if I like working with games or is there some way I can get art (for free, anything I do is just going to be for fun so I don't want to have to sink money into it) and just start messing around on my own? Or am I just having bad luck and not looking in the right places for other people interested in having me help?

I'm not looking for anything in particular, just something to fill some time with and see if I like making games. If not, well I'll go back to my software projects. I just have one more year of highschool and I'd like to try a few different areas before I go to college.