Highly customized UI... where does one begin?

[k77]

Hi there folks. I'm going to try to keep things as simple as possible for the sake of brevity.
I am creating a text game. The UI is intended to display a persistant menu on a side bar, whilst the main game screen is contained to a frame right beside the menu. There's also a top bar which displays the players current area and other various data.

The main question is... how does one even begin to go about this? I realize now that what I'm trying to do might be a little more complicated than your traditional ADV or NVL mode, and I'm tinkering with NVL mode without a single clue what I'm doing. At this point I'm just randomly changing code and seeing what it does and then making wild guesses as to what I should do next and frankly, I'm not making ANY progress.

So I beg of whatever wizards command code like a god to mere humans - what's a guy to do next?
Should I just study python?

[Empish]

No, what you should do is study screen language, which is different than Python. Screen language is what Ren'Py uses to display things, especially interactable things. I have a few videos on it, one I just released today which goes over the concepts of how screens work. You can find it here

You could also always hire me to do it for you. :'D *shot*