Calling a class method into appDelegate gives funky notation - objective-c

Question

So I got this code inside the update() function/method that tracks the game session in seconds (this is for achievement purposes) If someone has a better way of doing this, I'm all ears:
-(void)update:(NSTimeInterval)currentTime
{
if (pauseTimer == NO)
{
millisecondsTimer++;
if(millisecondsTimer == 60) //Remember that SK runs at 60 FPS default which means 60 equals 1 second.
{
millisecondsTimer = 0; //Reset the counter to 0 to begin again.
_secondsTracker++; //Add 1 second to this property.
}
}
else
{
NSLog(#"Timer paused.");
}
}
I want to take the _secondsTracker & save its value right before someone turns off the game completely (as in double clicks home button & swipes the game window up & away). The way I have it working now is using the appDelegate like so:
AppDelegate.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
BOOL pauseTimer;
#interface AppDelegate : UIResponder <UIApplicationDelegate>
#property (strong, nonatomic) UIWindow *window;
#end
AppDelegate.m
#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "GameScene.h" //For sessionTracker property.
#import "GameData.h" //To call upon gdTotalSessionTime property.
#interface AppDelegate ()
#end
#implementation AppDelegate
-(BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
/*Override point for customization after application launch.*/
return YES;
}
-(void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
/*Sent when the application is about to move from active to inactive state. This can occur for certain types of temporary interruptions (such as an incoming phone call or SMS message) or when the user quits the application and it begins the transition to the background state.*/
/*Use this method to pause ongoing tasks, disable timers, and throttle down OpenGL ES frame rates. Games should use this method to pause the game.*/
pauseTimer = YES; //Will stop the secondsTimer accumulating value.
}
-(void)applicationDidEnterBackground:(UIApplication *)application
{
/*Use this method to release shared resources, save user data, invalidate timers, and store enough application state information to restore your application to its current state in case it is terminated later.*/
/*If your application supports background execution, this method is called instead of applicationWillTerminate: when the user quits.*/
//Will add secondsTracker value to the total (gdTotalSessionTIme).
GameScene *gS = [[GameScene alloc] init];
[GameData sharedGameData].gdTotalSeconds = [GameData sharedGameData].gdTotalSeconds + [gS.secondsTracker]; //Supposed to add the secondsTracker value to the gdTotalSeconds value.
[[GameData sharedGameData] save]; //This saves all the data to a file in app.
NSLog(#"THIS SESSION TIME: %ld seconds", gS.secondsTracker);
}
-(void)applicationWillEnterForeground:(UIApplication *)application
{
/*Called as part of the transition from the background to the inactive state; here you can undo many of the changes made on entering the background.*/
}
-(void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
/*Restart any tasks that were paused (or not yet started) while the application was inactive. If the application was previously in the background, optionally refresh the user interface.*/
pauseTimer = NO; //Will resume the secondsTimer value accumulation.
}
-(void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application
{
/*Called when the application is about to terminate. Save data if appropriate. See also applicationDidEnterBackground:.*/
}
The line of code that's giving me problems is this one:
[GameData sharedGameData].gdTotalSeconds = [GameData sharedGameData].gdTotalSeconds + gS.secondsTracker;
More specifically gS.secondsTracker. Xcode keeps wanting to replace it into this:
*([GameData sharedGameData].gdTotalSeconds + gS.secondsTracker);
Doing so, nothing adds up the way I want it too & I know for a fact the GameData class is working correctly & saving other data to a file it created. Someone please tell me what these *() are?

Answer 1

While I advised that you can probably provide a singleton accessor to get hold of the currently running instance of GameScene it's not quite a singleton as you will want to allow GameScene objects to be created as normal. What is required is simply accessing the "current" instance, with something like:
header
#interface GameScene : SKScene
...
+ (GameScene *)currentGameScene;
...
#end
implementation
static GameScene *_instance = nil;
#interface GameScene
- (instancetype)init...
{
if (self) ...
_instance = self;
return self;
}
- (void)dealloc
{
if (self == _instance)
_instance = nil;
}
+ (GameScene *)currentGameScene
{
return _instance;
}