I got a surreal art sim to rate my dog

Julian Glander's surreal Art Sqool, out today, turns the trials and tribulations of being an art student into a bizarre dreamscape where players must craft wonderful works of art for an AI professor to critique. I have been known to doodle, so I decided to see if I have what it takes to become a career artist. 

My first task, doled out by my AI professor, was to draw the last thing I said "I love you" to, which was easy. It was, of course, my bestest bud, Max the labradoodle. Despite the fact that he was just in the living room and and I have approximately 80 million pictures of him, I decided to sketch him from memory. 

Here is my striking piece. 

ART.

 And here is what the real Max looks like. 

Clearly I've been wasting my time working in the video game industry. I should have been a pro dog artist. My professor was less convinced and gave me a B grade. Now, a B isn't bad, but I was hoping for more. Dotted around the floating islands that make up Art Sqool's campus are various pots of paint and art supplies, each containing the promise of more elaborate art. Maybe I should have grabbed them? 

I found some blue paint and got on with my second task: draw some molecules. I wish I'd gone abstract, but instead I just carelessly threw some lattices onto the page and called it a day. Honestly, I was still a bit sore about the B. What does he know? Stupid professor. 

He gave it an A. 

I'm not really sure how the AI judges each piece, and there doesn't appear to be much correlation between the grade and the bars that represent skills like composition and line work. It might even be random. 

Even if my AI professor is really a fraud and the grades are hollow, I find myself oddly enchanted by Art Sqool. The entire campus is a gleeful, free-form art exhibition full of googly-eyed statues and mountains that look like candy. There's not a lot you can do to interact with the world, but it's not lacking in purpose. Every weird shape, out of place tower and alien tree is a potential source of inspiration.

Could use more dogs, though. 

Art Sqool is out now on Steam and Itch.io

Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog. 

Latest in Sim
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Dwarf Fortress adventure mode art
After 23 years of making Dwarf Fortress, even its creator is still 'terrified' of drowning all his dwarves with aquifers: 'Part of the problem is we are just not good at videogames'
Tarn Adams, who cofounded Bay 12 Games with his brother Zach, talks about their single-player simulation game "Dwarf Fortress" during an interview at their home office in Poulsbo, Washington, west of Seattle, on December 9, 2022. - A cult favorite among indie game fans, "Dwarf Fortress" has been available for purchase on the Steam online store since December 6, a first for this title that has been distributed for free since its debut in 2006. The real-time management game, set in a medieval-fantasy world and involving overseeing a group of dwarves seeking to build a mighty fortress, has climbed to the fourth best-selling weekly title on Steam. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
Dwarf Fortress' creator is so tired of hearing about AI: 'Press a button and it writes a really sh*tty, wrong essay about something—and they still take your job'
Decorations in TCG Card Shop Simulator
TCG Card Shop Simulator finally adds the ability to decorate our stores, and suddenly all my profits are being spent on adorable Pigni posters
A person on a snowmobile riding a track in the forest in game Sledders.
Powder enthusiasts seem pretty pleased with new physics-based realistic snowmobile sim Sledders
Dean Hall at GDC 2025.
Outer space inspired DayZ's Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he's making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency
Latest in News
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all