A new iOS app based on “pickup artist” Nick Savoy’s Love Systems method(Opens in a new window) purports to teach shy guys how to woo women—and it’s definitely not creepy, the developers promised on Friday.

Become A Pick Up Artist is structured as a role-playing game starring Luke, “a guy with a crumbling love-life until he meets a dating coach who changes his life,” according to developer Chouquette Games. The storyline, they said, was devised to help men “strategically learn how to pick up women” and offers “a new and exciting way for those who need a little help in the dating world to boost the know-how they need to win over girls.”

What’s more, Chouquette Games assured us that Become A Pick Up Artist is “certainly not another Girls Around Me app,” a reference to a controversial and now-defunct mobile app that took publicly available information from FourSquare and Facebook, mashed it up, and presented users with a map showing where nearby females were located plus a quick link to their Facebook profiles.

Become A Pick Up Artist

Girls Around Me was roundly slammed for its stalkerish vibe. The app, how it works, and the shocked reaction of his female friends to its existence were all detailed in Cult of Mac reporter John Brownlee’s long article on Girls Around Me(Opens in a new window) published in March 2012.

The modern pickup artist (PUA) movement as championed by Savoy and others has also received its fair share of criticism. Defenders of PUA teachings say they simply give socially awkward men (and theoretically women, but really, men) a fighting chance in a dating market that scares and bewilders them. Critics argue that PUA methods are silly at best and at worst can foster a predatory, dehumanizing attitude towards women in the guys who use them.

The trailer for Become A Pick Up Artist (below) probably won’t do much to sway either camp. Become A Pick Up Artist is available for $2.99(Opens in a new window) in Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.