SpriteKit - Run a method with two arguments after a random period of time

Question

While trying to create a game for iOS I'm facing a problem: I cannot find a way to call a method that creates a SpriteKit node from another class that "calls itself" or repeats after a random period of time in an easy way.

The idea is this: I have a class where the scene is created. But then I have another class (subclass of SKSPriteNode) that creates the different SKSpriteNode that I need. I have one method called createObjectWithName: name position: position that takes two arguments (name and position). I need to call this method from my scene (fine until here), but I also need to repeat this method constantly in random periods of time. So, once it is called one time, it calls itself after a period of time, creating more SKSPriteNodes.

I've tried using performSelector and dispatch_after, but I hadn't had any luck so far.

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Unless I am missing something, I think you want to use SKAction for this solution.

You could have a method for starting the spawner like this :

-(void)startSpawner:(float)duration range:(float)range
{

    SKAction *delay = [SKAction waitForduration:duration withRange:range];
    SKAction *spawnBlock = [SKAction runBlock:^(void)
                            {

                                NSString *spawnName = @"name";
                                CGPoint *spawnPosition = CGPointMake(someX, someY);
                                SpriteNodeSubclass *node = [SpriteNodeSubclass createObjectWithName:spawnName andPosition:spawnPosition];
                                // do something with that node if you need to.
                            }];

    SKAction *sequence = [SKAction sequence:@[delay, spawnBlock]];
    SKAction *repeat = [SKAction repeatActionForever:sequence];
    [self runAction:repeat];
}

I think it's ideal to use SKAction as opposed to dispatch_after, because if you pause SpriteKit, the SKAction will also pause.