Gaming in C++

Here's the deal, /prog/. Over the winter break, I have decided I want to practice and expand my skills, and as such, design a small applet type game using C++. Now, i am fluent in C++, and MFC, but MFC wouldn't exactly be ideal for this. I fully intend for the game to be 2D Sprite based.

What should I look into, what should I use, and how should I go about things? I've heard openGL would work well, is there anything else I ought to remain cognizant of?

Look into SDL or Allegro. OpenGL, while powerful, might be a bit too much for a small 2d project.

Hmm. Well, previous experience was in MFC, we used bitblts for that. I think we used MFC for socketing and, well, I can't recall what else. Managed to make a decent game in it, but everyone else I know reccomends against it.

The game isn't planned to be top end or anything particularly special, mind you, more or less an exercise in c++.

If you're going to make a 2D game, USE SDL BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING GOOD. OpenGL is unecessary in your case.