Game Of Life implemented with for-loops and a boolean-array
I'd start it with a Cell and a Grid class and probably a two-dimensional Cell array field in the Grid.  Cell provides type-safety and more readable code while  probably contains only a boolean flag. 

Anyway, this implementation can be improved. I'd extract out a List&lt;Integer&gt; getSurroundingCells(int cellIndex) and an int countLiveCells(final List&lt;Integer&gt; cellIndexes) method. A boolean getNextValue(int cellIndex, boolean oldValue, int liveNeighborCount) also could help.