Well, I am trying to see how you are approaching the project. It sounds interesting to me, provided I know a bit more about it
I understand you're using MSVC++, so if you're planning cross platform, I suggest you switch to standard C/C++ asap
(I do cross platform development for a living, and MAN is MSVC++ a PITA)
Are you rolling your own GFX engine or using a pre-existing one?