A CMS I've been working on and off on. Fortunately I was able to get some good time in on it lately and get an updated video out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEMKqzDMRv8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEMKqzDMRv8

edit:

Nice menus, 10,000-15,000 variables is a lot of variables. 30mb is pretty big for a menu however it runs well so I can't really complain. I like the other skins you have as well there's some variety and they all seem to work out well. I like the giant Thumbs Up/Down pictures as well when you're making a decision in the configurations (nice touch). Nice icons for the type of items you can equip. The whole menu is FF-Esque but you've added your own creativity to it as well. The fact that it's functional with no lag is an accomplishment of it's own. I can see you put some effort into the overall design so congrats on that.

Any details about the project itself?

Fixed it. Thanks for that. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEMKqzDMRv8

edit:

Nice menus, 10,000-15,000 variables is a lot of variables. 30mb is pretty big for a menu however it runs well so I can't really complain. I like the other skins you have as well there's some variety and they all seem to work out well. I like the giant Thumbs Up/Down pictures as well when you're making a decision in the configurations (nice touch). Nice icons for the type of items you can equip. The whole menu is FF-Esque but you've added your own creativity to it as well. The fact that it's functional with no lag is an accomplishment of it's own. I can see you put some effort into the overall design so congrats on that.

Any details about the project itself?

I changed the "10,000-15,000" variables to 10,000-15,000 variable operations. Sorry about that. 

Thanks for your response. It's taken a lot of time and effort to get everything in place and have all of the custom skins. As for the actual project, as I am doing the menu system at the moment I am planning out the overall story and battle system. The battle system will be the next thing I develop after the menu system is in place, which is why if you notice in the video the overdrive bar is kind of just a placeholder (it doesn't even show up in the status menu yet). I'm planning on making the battle system turn based with various other things to make it fun and not too repetitive. I'm really looking forward to it.

The song choice really dampened the experience for me, but overall, I love the menu.  This feeling is heightened because I rejoice to see someone program something that's more than decent in RM2k/3.

I get a real Final Fantasy 9 vibe from the menu, though that's not a bad thing.  I do have some minor things to mention, though:

- the cursor repeat speed seems way too fast.  It looks like the player would often accidentally choose the wrong thing if he's hurrying through the menu and does little more than tap the directional keys.  I'd have to play it myself to judge it for certain, but I remember having a problem with this kind of thing in Final Fantasy Origins, so the concern is legitimate.

- the menu skins, while nice, seem...unnecessary, and I'd wager a guess that you had to create a good seven times as many files in order to implement them.  Personally, I'd choose a color that suited my project and stick with a single theme, but that's just me.  This is less of a concern and more of an opinion, though.

Other than that, I can't really find anything wrong with it.  It looks awesome.  I hope to one day see "Project Kangaroo" take flight, as I'm genuinely interested now.

The song choice really dampened the experience for me, but overall, I love the menu.  This feeling is heightened because I rejoice to see someone program something that's more than decent in RM2k/3.

I get a real Final Fantasy 9 vibe from the menu, though that's not a bad thing.  I do have some minor things to mention, though:

- the cursor repeat speed seems way too fast.  It looks like the player would often accidentally choose the wrong thing if he's hurrying through the menu and does little more than tap the directional keys.  I'd have to play it myself to judge it for certain, but I remember having a problem with this kind of thing in Final Fantasy Origins, so the concern is legitimate.

- the menu skins, while nice, seem...unnecessary, and I'd wager a guess that you had to create a good seven times as many files in order to implement them.  Personally, I'd choose a color that suited my project and stick with a single theme, but that's just me.  This is less of a concern and more of an opinion, though.

Other than that, I can't really find anything wrong with it.  It looks awesome.  I hope to one day see "Project Kangaroo" take flight, as I'm genuinely interested now.

Thanks for the response. Regarding the song choice, I knew that some people would be switched off by it. I chose it simply in the spirit of Final Fantasy XIII which releases this next week and figured it would click with people. I myself don't really like RnB too much, but most of the other videos either have some hardcore rock, classical piano (which I admit I use often), or something else. I figured I'd mix it up a bit.

About the cursor speed, I agree that it does look fast on in the video, but you really would have to play it first hand as you suggested to really get the feel for it. The video does make it look a bit faster than it really is due to the loss in frame rate, but I may even make a cursor speed option somewhere.

As for the menu skins, they are essentially unnecessary, but it's just something that has stuck with me and I think gives my project a bit of an identity in terms of it's menu. Originally the menu started with just Violet and Classic Blue, but in the end I decided to put some more diverse skins in there just to give people more of a choice. But again, you are right that they aren't essential, but as long as they aren't hurting the game I'm fine with them being there. If file size ever does get out of control, which I don't see it doing, then I may look into cutting some of them down.

But again - thanks a lot for the reply. It's great to see some positive responses about the menu. It's taken a lot of my time and effort. 

As the master of menu's (gets rocks thrown at him), I'm surprised you haven't been questioned about possible gamer plays. 

Anyway, the menu system looks great, and like what everyone else listed before, I like the little touch-on's like the info pop-up's that go into detail about what your doing. My only problems is that this menu isn't very orginial since it borrows heavily on FF9--but who cares right!? Also, I think the status menu should be placed a little bit down and have items move into the #1 slot, espcially if your going for a FF9 style clone, and usually the first thing I do is reach into the items / magic when I come to the menu. The only other problem I have is that you have some RM2K3 default message boxes littered around, and it just makes it look like a bit dumb. Other than that, it is a great menu, and I can't wait to see what else you have up your sleeves! 

Thanks for the reply.

The normal system messages are just placeholders for now (like the exit prompt message). Amusingly enough, the status menu looks a lot like FF9 simply because that was the only FF game I could find that had images of it's status menu on Google. It had a good concept and I figured that I could at my own flavor to it and make it look good, which hopefully I did.

Regarding the placement of the equipment, it's only there for quick viewing purposes and such. There will be individual menus for all of the other main things such as magic, items, and equipment. If you notice also when you are highlighting the weapons in the status screen another message prompt slides under the info tab and allows you to quick-travel to the equipment menu straight from the status screen (however it does not work at the moment given that the equipment menu hasn't been created yet).

edit- I misread your post, but I'll keep my second paragraph there just for information's sake. For the time being I'll probably keep the status at the top, but I may consider changing a few things around based on how the rest of the game goes. Thanks for considering that.

Wow, nice! If this is the CMS I can only guess about the overall quality of the project.