I was wondering why startGame() does not seem to work. I know it get run and the game doesnt crash. Is there some type caveat that i dont know about? I also stepped though it with break points to double check that it was even running.

I just also noticed with init() that if you print(allWords.count) before you return that the count of allWords and rootWord is nothing. Not 0 but no output at all. Not even giving rootWord the value of silkworm.

I'm so confused on whats going on. I have dabled in programming a few times with android and kotlin but have never seen something like this before.

Hi! It would be more helpful to provide a piece of code so that others could look into what might be wrong. Otherwise, we could just make guesses...

import SwiftUI

struct ContentView: View {
    @State private var usedWords = [String]()
    @State private var rootWord = ""
    @State private var newWord = ""

    init() {
        startGame()
    }

    var body: some View {

        NavigationView {
            List {
                Section {
                    TextField("Enter your word", text: $newWord)
                        .textInputAutocapitalization(.never)
                }

                Section {
                    ForEach(usedWords, id: \.self) { word in
                        HStack {
                            Image(systemName: "\(word.count).circle")
                            Text(word)
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            .navigationTitle(rootWord)
            .onSubmit(addNewWord)
            //.onAppear(perform: startGame)
        }
    }

    func addNewWord() {
        // lowercase and trim the word, to make sure we don't add duplicate words with case differences
        let answer = newWord.lowercased().trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespacesAndNewlines)

        // exit if the remaining string is empty
        guard answer.count > 0 else { return }

        // extra validation to come

        withAnimation {
            usedWords.insert(answer, at: 0)
        }
        newWord = ""
    }

    func startGame() {
        if let startWordsURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "start", withExtension: "txt"){
            if let startWords = try? String(contentsOf: startWordsURL) {
                let allWords = startWords.components(separatedBy: "\n")
                rootWord = allWords.randomElement() ?? "silkworm"
                return
            }
        }
        fatalError("Could not load start.txt from bundle.")
    }
}

struct ContentView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
    static var previews: some View {
        ContentView()
    }
}

First not sure why you want to add init() when .onAppear(perform: startGame) works! However Have got it to work change the startGame() to this

func startGame() {
    if let startWordsURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "start", withExtension: "txt"){
        if let startWords = try? String(contentsOf: startWordsURL) {
            let allWords = startWords.components(separatedBy: "\n")
            let pickedWord = allWords.randomElement() ?? "silkworm"
            rootWord = pickedWord
            return
        }
    }
    fatalError("Could not load start.txt from bundle.")
}

@Tinywonder745

JFYI, should you have a question why to use .onAppear() over init() here is concise answer https://www.hackingwithswift.com/interview-questions/whats-the-difference-between-a-views-initializer-and-onappear