Little Star Cruisers Blog

I almost always have my phone near me. Sometimes in my pocket, usually lost in the couch cushions. Ok, let's be honest, it's always lost in the couch cushions. My middle child is like a heat-seeking missile for phones left behind. He's even teaching our 1-year-old to do the same. If I walk away from the playroom for a few minutes, I will likely return to find one of them with my phone in their hands.

The phone is locked, but they are dismissing the notifications, turning on the flashlight, making emergency phone calls and just generally wreaking havoc. But, if I saw something that was always in my role model's hands just laying around, I would probably jump on that opportunity to inspect it too.

Needless to say, our kids can get into a lot of trouble in just a few seconds with our phones. That made us realize that letting them play a game while waiting for a meal at a restaurant could be a recipe for disaster. The whole point of giving them the phone was to allow us to pay attention…

At Little Star Cruisers, we value creating enjoyable soundtracks for our games. When my kids are playing a game, I am not always watching the screen, but I hear the sounds it makes. I hear the background music and the sound effects clearly in the backseat of the car or across the kitchen. We not only want to make listening to our games pleasant; We want you to hum along!

Want a preview of what will be playing on repeat in the backseat while your kids play our games? Then listen to our "music video"!

Did that get your foot tapping? We put effort into creating a simple song for your toddler that still entertains your adult senses. It's repetitive enough to blend in yet still be enjoyable. We've ensured that even the simple sound of a bubble popping comes in multiple tones to save you from repeatedly hearing the same sound effect and to bring our game to life. We have listened to other apps that utilize stock sounds that make no sense in context: Why does that animal noise…

The New Baby Toy?

I was a kid before computers were in homes and I’m not even middle-aged yet. I remember the first smartphones as being super high-tech devices for the wealthy. Touch screens only existed in science fiction movies. Fast forward to now, everyone has a touch screen device in their pocket. Tablets are installed in restaurant play areas, they are at doctors’ offices, they are on refrigerators, microwaves, sippy cups, they are literally everywhere! Technology has come so far so fast. It is only going to continue to progress over our kids’ lifetimes, possibly even faster than it already has.

There is an expectation that our kids will be able to use devices from a very young age. They would absolutely be at a disadvantage if they didn’t start school with a basic knowledge of how to use a touch screen.

As it stands, modern devices are designed with adults in mind. The apps and games available have complicated interfaces, long menus, and lots of ways to spend money. I want my…

Who we are

Little Star Cruisers isn’t a big faceless corporation. We are parents who are determined to fill the need for safe virtual playgrounds for our kids. We are in the trenches of parenthood — learning to juggle three young kids, all under five. Between the growth of our family and the recent changes in the digital world, we realized that there are very few appropriate digital play areas for our kids.

There are games available for little ones, but they tend to have low quality graphics, unfriendly interfaces, ads appearing at inappropriate times or exploitative microtransactions. My three year old does not need to buy things from your in-app store! We couldn’t find much that had the right balance of safe and engaging for our kids. We know there is a need for digital entertainment for kids — we have tried to take our little cruisers to eat at a restaurant, wait in a line, fly in an airplane; these activities are all only possible armed with your wit and extreme attentiveness. But…