I am making a word game in python with pygame, and I am struggling with generating my board. for the game, I need the board to be 8*6, filled with letters. Additionally, when a letter is clicked, I’d like it to be highlighted gray. The following is the progress I’ve made towards doing that:

Here is my current code:

import random 
import string 
import pygame

# defining colors 
black = (0, 0, 0)
white = (255, 255, 255)
gray = (128, 128, 128)

# screen width, height, etc 
screen_width = 600 
screen_height = 800 
board_cols = 6
board_rows = 8
font_size = 32

def generate_board(): 
  all_letters = string.ascii_uppercase
  board = []
  for i in range(board_rows):
    row = random.sample(all_letters, board_cols)
    board.append(row)
  return board

# printing the gameboard (code doesn't display anything otherwise)
def print_board(board):
  for row in board: 
    print(" ".join(row))

board = generate_board()
print_board(board)

# function to format cells and stylize board 
def draw_board(screen, board, selected_letter=None): 
  pygame.init()
  cell_width = screen_width // board_cols
  cell_height = screen_height // board_rows
  font = pygame.font.SysFont('None', font_size)

  # drawing letters in the correct spaces
  for row_index, row in enumerate(board): 
    for col_index, letter in enumerate(row):
      x = col_index * cell_width
      y = row_index * cell_height
      #drawing letters 
      text_surface = font.render(letter, True, white)
      screen.blit(text_surface, (x, y))

      #drawing outline around letter if selected
      if letter == selected_letter: 
        pygame.draw.rect(screen, gray, (x, y, cell_width, cell_height))

def get_clicked_letter(board, position): #position = position of click
  cell_width = screen_width // board_cols
  cell_height = screen_height // board_rows
  # if click is within board: 
  if 0 <= position[0] < screen_width and 0 < position[1] < screen_height:
    # find in what index the click occurred 
    row_index = position[1] // cell_height 
    col_index = position[0] // cell_width 

    # if click is within a certain cell: 
    if 0 <= row_index < board_rows and 0 <= col_index < board_cols: 
      # find index where click is 
      return board[row_index][col_index]
    return None 

# main game board creation and instituting click function 
def main_board(): 
  pygame.init()
  screen = pygame.display.set_mode((screen_width, screen_height))
  pygame.display.set_caption("Strands")

  game_board = generate_board()
  selected_letter = None 

  running = True 
  while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
      if event.type == pygame.QUIT: 
        running = False 
        pygame.quit()
      elif event.type == pygame.MOUSEBUTTONDOWN: 
        # find position of clicked letter: 
        clicked_letter = get_clicked_letter(game_board, pygame.mouse.get_position())
        if clicked_letter: 
          selected_letter = clicked_letter 

    screen.fill(black)
    draw_board(screen, game_board, selected_letter)
    pygame.display.flip()
      

  pygame.init()
  main_board()

I expected the code to output a screen/pop-up with a grid of randomized letters, and for these letters to, when clicked, turn gray.

However, all I got was a matrix of letters within the terminal.

I’ve tried initializing pygame in different places, as well as playing around with my order of code, but I am at an impasse. This is my first time using pygame, so sorry if I’m missing something obvious. Thanks for your help!