Using layoutmanagers in a game. Good idea?

Question

Is it a good idea to use a layoutmanager to provide the layout for a map and use another layer where I draw the movements? Any suggestions what I should or should not do, techniques? This is for a 2d game schoolproject, but I have no experience in this area.

Answer 1

Forget about using swing/awt components. Check out some of the posts on javagaming.org.
The normal way to draw a map is making a grid of tiles that cover your map, with each grid or tile having a image.
Search dubble buffering, smooth scrolling, and tilesets.
Image[] images;  // image for each ground type;
int[][] tiles;   // contains the type of ground for each tile.
//  tiles = new int[worldWidth / tileSize][worldHeight / tileSize];
int minTileX = cameraX; // where we in the level.
int minTileY = cameraY; // camera is in tile coordinates.  ( keeping it simple :) )
for (int x = 0, tileX = 0; tileX < tilesAcross; x += tileSize, tileX++)
                for (int y = 0, tileY = 0; tileY < tilesDown; y += tileSize, tileY++)
                    Image image = images[tiles[minTileX + tileX][minTileY + tileY]];
                    g.drawImage(image, x, y, tileSize, tileSize, null);