Ideas

I'd like to test and hone my C++ and DirectX9 skillz. I need an idea for a simple project. I'm not going to touch vertex based collision detection, because that's a little advanced, but spherical CD is an option. The project doesn't have to be 3D, but working with graphical interfaces and DirectX is a primary goal.

I was thinking some sort of game where you shoot some rocks and the rocks break into smaller rocks, except in 3D, but before I start in on something I wanted to check here and see if anyone had any other clever ideas.

3d asteroids game of some variant?

That was the plan, I'm having some trouble figuring out how to translate meshes or vertex arrays (like basically offsetting their x y and z) without having to figure out the order in which to render them by hand. I'm hoping there's an easier way. There are a few options though, and obviously I don't know everything yet.