How to add a set of sprites in a certain pattern - swift

Question

I'm making a game that has a player that goes up and down if you hold the screen. This is not the important part though.
What I need is to add ENEMIES, that come toward you.
I need to know how to add the ENEMIES in a couple of different patterns.
Like this:(LOOK AT THE COINS PATTERN, HOW CAN I ACHIEVE THIS?)

Answer 1

You could define a 2-dimensional array to indicate where a coin should be e.g.
var coinRow = [[Int]]()
coinRow.append([0,1,1,1,1,1,1,0]) // '0' means 'No coin here'
coinRow.append([1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1]) // '1' means 'put coin here'
coinRow.append([0,1,1,1,1,1,1,0])
Then treat each coin 'area' as a 3x8 grid so given a starting location of the bottom-left hand corner as (0,0), do the following:
let coinStart = CGPoint(0,0)
coinPos = coinStart
for row in 0...2 { // Iterate over all rows
for column in 0...7 { // and all columns
if coinRow[row][column] == 1 { // Should there be a coin here?
putCoin(at: coinPos) // yes - draw one
}
coinPos.x += coin.width + coinHorizontalSeparation // next coin location
}
coinPos.y += coin.height + coinVerticalSeparation // Position to next row
coinPos.x = coinStart.x // Reset position to start of row
}
You wouldn't actually start at (0,0), so set coinStart as required. If the groups of coins appear in a regular pattern, then you can calculate coinStart and make the code that generates a block of coins a function that you call, passing coinStart as a parameter.