var spawn = SKAction.runBlock({() in self.spawnPipes()})

  var spawn = SKAction.runBlock({self.spawnPipes()})

  var spawn = SKAction.runBlock() {self.spawnPipes()}

  var spawn = SKAction.runBlock {self.spawnPipes()}

Considering the language has only been public for <36 hours, I would imagine effectively no one outside of Apple (and its Alpha partners) does.

  var spawn = SKAction.runBlock self.spawnPipes

  if var == true {...}

  if (<expression> == true) {
      return true;
  } else {
      return false;
  }

  if var == true {...}

However in the strongly typed swift I don't think it will be a problem as I suspect (but haven't read/tested enough yet to confirm) that only false and nil will be falsy and that comparison with true will throw errors if var isn't of bool type.

  3 == true    // Give an error (operator overload doesn't cover this)
  true == 3    // Returns false
  nil == false // Returns false

But the branch and explicit boolean comparison are additional structural complexity (not just "verbosity") and invariably harms readability to me. Care give a poster child example for where it helps readability? Unless it's unclear <expression> results in a boolean - a problem better solved through better naming - code like this forces me to perform the equivalent simplification in my head to understand and reason about the code, a process fraught with error and distraction from my actual task.

    return expression;

I think you should type let everywhere, except when you cannot get away with it.

So, it is var when declaring a loop variable. Elsewhere you almost always can introduce a new name. So, instead of

   X += 1

   let newX = x + 1

If you find yourself creating a newerX, a newestX, etc. you may be better of with a var, but chances also are that you are better of writing your code differently (for example can you iterate over a constant array of values instead of doing x+=1 a few times? If your function needs to create 10+ Local variables, can you factor out a function?)

1. Strings, arrays and dictionaries are value types (like structs in C# - stored on stack, not on the heap) with special copying rules for arrays.

2. Custom operators - can be defined as a sequence of "/ = - + * % < > ! & | ^ . ~" characters and made prefix, infix or postfix. There is an example in the reference that defines a prefix operator "+++" for vectors