title: iOS SpriteKit - countdown before game starts?
body: <p>Just getting into SpriteKit on iOS using Swift. I have a 'Breakout' game from a tutorial and I want to implement a countdown before every ball launches, by putting an SKLabel in the middle of the screen which counts down from 5 to 1 before removing itself and the game starting. Whilst the countdown is going on, you can see the full games screen with the wall, stationary ball etc.</p>
  
  <p>I can't work out where in the game loop to do this. If I do the countdown in didMoveToView (where I create the wall and initialise the ball and paddle), I never see it, but I see my debugging messages in the log. I guess that didMoveToView is called before the SKScene is presented.</p>
  
  <p>I tried to use a flag to call the countdown function the first time 'Update' is called, but again I saw the countdown executed before anything appeared on screen - i think 'update' is called initially before the scene is rendered.</p>
  
  <p>I could implement a 'Tap screen to start' screen in a another SKScene, but I really wanted a countdown on the screen with the wall and the (stationary) ball ready to go. I could create this countdown scene using a background image of the game screen, but this seems awkward.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions gratefully received,</p>
  
  <p>Steve</p>