Como eu posso mudar o DELAY do Timer do JavaX SWING durante a execução de uma aplicação?

[Ramon_Jales]

Estou fazendo um jogo da cobrinha. Utilzo um atributo Timer do javaX SWING para selecionar o delay(a velocidade) do meu jogo. O que eu gostaria de fazer é: com o passar do tempo que minha cobra comece uma maçã, o jogo ficasse mais rápido. Como posso fazer isso?
package panels

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.FontMetrics;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Image;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.KeyAdapter;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.Timer
public class GamePanel extends JPanel implements ActionListener {

private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

private final int boardWidht = 400;
private final int boardHeight = 400;
private final int bodyPartsize = 10;
private final int allbodyParts = ((boardWidht * boardHeight) / (bodyPartsize * bodyPartsize));
private final int randomPosition = 29;
private final int delay = 150;

private final int x[] = new int[allbodyParts];
private final int y[] = new int[allbodyParts];
	
private int bodyParts;
private int appleX;
private int appleY;
private int appleEaten;

private Timer timer;

private Image imageDot;
private Image imageHead;
private Image imageApple;

private boolean leftDirection = false;
private boolean rightDirection = true;
private boolean upDirection = false;
private boolean downDirection = false;
private boolean inGame = true;

public GamePanel() {
	initBoard();
}

private void initBoard() {
	addKeyListener(new MyKeyAdapter());
	setBackground(Color.BLACK);
	setFocusable(true);
	setPreferredSize(new Dimension(boardWidht, boardHeight));
	loadImages();
	initGame();
}

private void loadImages() {
	imageDot = new ImageIcon("resources/dot-shape.png").getImage();
	imageHead = new ImageIcon("resources/dot-head.png").getImage();
	imageApple = new ImageIcon("resources/apple.png").getImage();
}

private void initGame() {
	bodyParts = 3;
	
	for (int i = 0; i < bodyParts; i++) {
		x[i] = 50 - i * 10;
		y[i] = 50;
	}
	
	locateApple();
	
	timer = new Timer(delay, this);
	timer.start();
}

@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
	super.paintComponent(g);
	doDrawing(g);
}

private void drawingScore(Graphics g, int opacity, int fontSize) {
	String msg = "Score: " + appleEaten;
	g.setColor(new Color(255, 0, 0, opacity));
	g.setFont(new Font("Ink Free", Font.BOLD, fontSize));
	FontMetrics metrics = getFontMetrics(g.getFont());
	g.drawString(msg, (boardWidht - metrics.stringWidth(msg)) / 2, g.getFont().getSize());
}

private void doDrawing(Graphics g) {
	if (inGame) {
		g.drawImage(imageApple, appleX, appleY, this);
		for (int i = 0; i < bodyParts; i++) {
			if (i == 0) {
				g.drawImage(imageHead, x[i], y[i], this);
			}
			else {
				g.drawImage(imageDot, x[i], y[i], this);
			}
		}
		
		drawingScore(g, 65, 18);
		
		Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().sync();
	}
	else {
		gameOver(g);
	}
}

private void gameOver(Graphics g) {
	drawingScore(g, 200, 25);
	
	String msg = "Game Over!";
	Font font = new Font("Helvetica", Font.BOLD, 35);
	FontMetrics metrics = getFontMetrics(font);
	
	g.setColor(Color.RED);
	g.setFont(font);
	g.drawString(msg, ((boardWidht - metrics.stringWidth(msg)) / 2), (boardHeight / 2) );
}

private void checkApple() {
	if ((x[0] == appleX) && (y[0] == appleY)) {
		bodyParts++;
		appleEaten++;
		locateApple();
	}
}

private void move() {
	for (int i = bodyParts; i > 0; i--) {
		x[i] = x[(i - 1)];
		y[i] = y[(i - 1)];
	}
	if (leftDirection) {
		x[0] -= bodyPartsize;
	}
	if (rightDirection) {
		x[0] += bodyPartsize;
	}
	if (upDirection) {
		y[0] -= bodyPartsize;
	}
	if (downDirection) {
		y[0] += bodyPartsize;
	}
}

private void checkCollision() {
	for (int i = bodyParts; i > 0; i--) {
		if ((x[0] == x[i]) && (y[0] == y[i])) {
			inGame = false;
		}
	}
	if (x[0] >= boardWidht) {
		inGame = false;
	}
	if (x[0] < 0) {
		inGame = false;
	}
	if (y[0] >= boardHeight) {
		inGame = false;
	}
	if (y[0] < 0) {
		inGame = false;
	}
	if (!inGame) {
		timer.stop();
	}
}

private void locateApple() {
	int r = (int) (Math.random() * randomPosition);
	appleX = (r * bodyPartsize);
	
	r = (int) (Math.random() * randomPosition);
	appleY = (r * bodyPartsize);
}

@Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
	if (inGame) {
		checkApple();
		checkCollision();
		move();
	}
	repaint();
}

private class MyKeyAdapter extends KeyAdapter {
	@Override
	public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
		
		int key = e.getKeyCode();
		
		if ((key == KeyEvent.VK_LEFT) && (!rightDirection)) {
			leftDirection = true;
			upDirection = false;
			downDirection = false;
		}
		
		if ((key == KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT) && (!leftDirection)) {
			rightDirection = true;
			upDirection = false;
			downDirection = false;
		}
		
		if ((key == KeyEvent.VK_UP) && (!downDirection)) {
			upDirection = true;
			rightDirection = false;
			leftDirection = false;
		}
		
		if ((key == KeyEvent.VK_DOWN) && (!upDirection)) {
			downDirection = true;
			rightDirection = false;
			leftDirection = false;
		}			
	}
}

}