Original Post
Hi there! I´m currently designing a PC game that is mostly text-based with some simple pictures during battle-time and so on. I want it to have an appealing interface, though, that really integrates into gameplay since there are no beautiful graphics to rely on. I´ve already coded a simple 2D graphics lib using SDL and it took me almost a year to complete it. However, it hit me that I´ve spent most of my time coding base stuff instead of concentrating on designing a proper game. Because even after finishing the lib, all I could do was destroying my game ideas with my non-existent drawing skills! I like to code but now I want to see what making a deeper game without being limited by art dillemmas really is. So, I´d appreciate some advice on (free)APIs that really make things easier for the programmer, specially on the GUI area. It may be C# or C/C++-based. I´m thinking about using XNA or Ogre3D, but haven´t done much with either of them yet. Thanks in advance, Carol