How do I mix UIKit and SpriteKit?

Question

I am making a game in Swift. I have used both UIKit and SpriteKit, but never in the same app. I was wondering how to leverage the power of both of them (They are going to be a lot of menus). If you knew a tutorial I could use, or could tell me, I would be very appreciative. I also would like to know if there is a shortcut for this in xcode (e.g. storyboards)

Answer 1

I would highly recommend you to stick with SpriteKit and to create menus etc with SKNodes. I know that it is really seductive to use UIKit in a game for buttons etc. but you've got many possibilities right in SpriteKit which replaces UIKit-elements.

For example you can use an SKLabelNode instead of an UILabel. Also you've got many more possibilities in SpriteKit to make your menu 'smooth' (For example with SKTransition or SKAction).

Also an example for a menubutton would be:

//Button
var playButton = SKSpriteNode(imageNamed: "yourImage.png")
playButton.position = CGPointMake(300, 300)

playButton.name = "playButton"

addChild(playButton)

Then in your touchesBegan method you can handle that button touch.

Also one very important point to only use SpriteKit is, that you can port a iOS game to OSX within a few hours.