how to wait before spawning inside while loop spritekit

Question

The goal of the code is to spawn cards until the sum of the cards hits 17. The code works fine in that case, but I want it to wait 1 second before spawning the other card. The code currently spawns all the cards (and stops until 17 is reached) at once, which I don't want. Here's a simplified version, for reference it is in touchesBegan in SpriteKit:

else if standLabel.contains(touch.location(in: self)) {
                let waitForCard = SKAction.wait(forDuration: 1)
                while dealerCardValues.sum() <= 16 {
                    self.run(waitForCard)

                    spawnCard()
                    

                }

The wait for duration doesn't work. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use a Timer for this. The timer is called every 1 second, which runs the spawnCard() function as well as adding 1 to the counter variable. Once counter has reached 17 we invalidate it to stop it firing again.

So replace this code:

let waitForCard = SKAction.wait(forDuration: 1)
            while dealerCardValues.sum() <= 16 {
                self.run(waitForCard)

                spawnCard()

With this:

  var counter = 1
  
  Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 1, repeats: true) { [self] timer in
    
    counter += 1
    spawnCard()
    
    if counter == 17 {
      timer.invalidate()
    }
    
  }