I started another project in C/C++, which amounts to a game engine/framework that kind of ribs off of Unity. Not the user-friendly aspect of it, just the general code architecture. Really, it's less of an engine and a lot more framework like XNA, but with a lot of game stuff in it, like collisions and particle effects. I do intend to make a game with it but my original intentions was to look at my architectural chops, though I've obviously fallen into the hole where others that'd be more experience than I would pelt me endlessly with the mantra "make games, not engines."

They're right, of course, but I'm learning much from what I'm doing now. I've had a clear goal in my mind to keep system related things very abstracted and it's starting to pay off; that is to say, my codebase can be run on both PC (SDL/OpenGL) and the PS3. Right now, the rendering pipelines on either are very simplistic, but my original intent was to have a deferred shading pipeline on all platforms that this framework will eventually support. It doesn't have to be deferred, though. I've abstracted the framework enough that I can write any sort of renderer I want, I just like the idea of deferred shading. I will also write a specific Windows version of the framework so I can learn some Direct3D.

I'm hoping to get most of the framework done by the end of the week, at least to the point where I can get started writing a game on it.

I will get back on the C#/XNA horse soon, wanted to take a break away from obnoxious OpenAL audio programming. It makes 3D audio pretty dang easy, sure, but who thought ONLY making it for 3D audio programming was a great idea? Thanks Creative.

In other news, I've bought a ticket to Game Developer's Conference this March. Will be my first time in San Francisco... I'm kind of afraid getting a cheap hotel near the Moscone Convention Center as I'm sure I'd get stab.