Boss Movement Method

[Code4Breakfast]

I am working on a boss movement method. The idea is that every 8 seconds the method will be called from the create method, this may be part of the problem... The idea is that every 8 seconds the method will be called. The boss will appear from one side of the screen and exit to the other. The bosses y coord will be based on where players y coord.  The issue I am running into is that when the level starts the boss starts moving before 8 seconds goes across the screen to exit and is never seen again. I am not moving the player during the test so the bird isn't going beyond the y screen parameters. The console is only logging the side once so it only seem to be getting called once. 

My relevant code below:

// inside the create method

this.blueBirds = this.add.group();
this.blueBirds.enableBody = true;

 

this.multiBlueBirdFlight = this.game.time.events.loop(Phaser.Time.SECOND * 8, this.flyBlueBird(), this);

 

// inside the game state

flyBlueBird: function () {
    
    var blueBird = this.blueBirds.getFirstExists();

    if (!blueBird) {
      blueBird = this.blueBirds.create(this.X_MIN, this.player.y -100, 'blueBird');
      blueBird.anchor.setTo(0.5);
      blueBird.customParams = {};
      blueBird.customParams.side = 'left'
      blueBird.body.allowGravity = false;
      blueBird.animations.add('flying', [0,1,2,3], 5, true);
    }

    if (blueBird.customParams.side == 'left') {
      blueBird.reset(this.X_MIN , this.player.y - 100)
        blueBird.body.velocity.x = 100;
        blueBird.body.velocity.y = -10;
        blueBird.customParams.side = 'right';
    } else {
         blueBird.reset(this.X_MAX + 50, this.player.y - 100);
      
         blueBird.body.velocity.x = -100;
         blueBird.body.velocity.y = -10;

        blueBird.customParams.side = 'left';
     }
       
      
         blueBird.play('flying')
         console.log(blueBird.customParam.side)
  }

[drhayes]

The problem is in this line:

this.multiBlueBirdFlight = this.game.time.events.loop(Phaser.Time.SECOND * 8, this.flyBlueBird(), this);

You're not saying "here is the name of the function I want you to call", you're saying "run this function right now and pass its result to the timer". You probably meant "this.game.time.events.loop(Phaser.Time.SECOND * 8, this.flyBlueBird, this);" Notice how there aren't parenthesis after this.flyBlueBird? That means you're passing the name of the function, not the result of the function. Does that make sense?