swift call function multiple times inside update - swift

Question

I create a game via SpriteKit. in the game every few second a ball spawn to the screen (via function) and the player has to blow them up. now, I want to check the player level via his score so if the score is bigger than 10 the spawnBall function will be executed twice (so 2 ball will spawn on the screen) an so on. I tried to to it via the update fun (that will "read" the player score and depends on the score will call the spawnBall function). Unfortunately when I do it the screen is spawn with million (or so) balls in few seconds (as I said I want it to call the function every few seconds and increase the call while the score is X). I really don't have any idea how to do it.
here is my code:
override func update(_ currentTime: CFTimeInterval) {
if (self.score <= 10){
spawnBalls()
}
if (self.score > 10 && self.score <= 20){
spawnBalls()
spawnBalls()
}
if (self.score > 20){
spawnBalls()
spawnBalls()
spawnBalls()
}
if (self.subscore == 3) {
_ = randomBallColorToBlow()
self.subscore = 0
}
}
func spawnBalls() {
let wait = SKAction.wait(forDuration: 1)
let action = SKAction.run {
self.createBall()
}
run(SKAction.repeatForever((SKAction.sequence([wait, action]))))
}
how can I do it without using the update function??

Answer 1

you are calling spawn balls 60 times a second by calling it in your update func.
try just checking if a certain requirement is met to upgrade to a higher spawn rate in your update but keep the calls out of the update func.
private var upgradedToLevel2 = false
private var upgradedToLevel3 = false
//called somewhere probably in a start game func
spawnBalls(duration: 1.0)
override func update(_ currentTime: CFTimeInterval) {
if (self.score > 10 && self.score <= 20) && !upgradedToLevel2 {
//this prevents the if loop from running more than once
upgradedToLevel2 = true
self.removeAction(forKey: "spawn")
spawnBalls(duration: 0.5)
}
if (self.score > 20) && !upgradedToLevel3 {
//this prevents the if loop from running more than once
upgradedToLevel3 = true
spawnBalls(duration: 0.33)
}
}
func spawnBalls(duration: Double) {
let wait = SKAction.wait(forDuration: duration)
let action = SKAction.run { self.createBall() }
let repeater = SKAction.repeatForever(SKAction.sequence([wait, action]))
run(repeater, withKey: "spawn")
}

Answer 2

As stated, you are spawning your balls multiple times and need to break it up. I would recommend keeping track of level using an Int instead of a bool to be able to handle an "infinite" amount of level ups without making an "infinite" amount of boolean variables
private var nextLevel = 0 //Level 0 allows us to spawn a ball on startup, so no need to call spawnBalls anywhere else
override func update(_ currentTime: CFTimeInterval) {
if (self.score > 10 * nextLevel){
self.removeAction(forKey: "spawn") //this prevents the if loop from running more than once
nextLevel += 1
spawnBalls(count:nextLevel,forDuration:1) //You can change the 1 here if you want to spawn balls at a faster speed, I would recommend a variable that uses nextLevel in a forumula
}
}
func spawnBalls(count:Int, forDuration duration:TimeInterval) {
let range = 0..<count
let wait = SKAction.wait(forDuration: duration)
let action = SKAction.run {range.forEach{self.createBall()}}
let repeater = SKAction.repeatForever(SKAction.sequence([wait, action]))
removeAction(forKey:"spawn")
run(repeater, withKey: "spawn")
}