Starri 2.0: Our Update Plan

We hear you. Loud and clear.

We missed the mark with the rollout of Starri 2.0.

We set out to make Starri better and build a foundation for its future. But in making such a significant update all at once, we disrupted an experience that some of our families had come to know and love.

We’ve heard from families with crying kids. Last Sunday, I was sitting alone in a coffee shop waiting for my daughter’s class to finish, reading your stories about what Starri meant to your families and how upsetting this transition has been for some of your kids. I cried, too.

I’m sorry. We should have handled this transition better.

The original Starri codebase started as a mobile app. Starri deserved a rebuild to take advantage of the TV’s bigger screen and Playground’s latest graphics engine, support our growing music library and continuous feature development, and prepare for upcoming artist collaborations in Q4.

We remain excited about where Starri 2.0 can go.

But through all of your feedback, we also learned something we should have understood better before we shipped it:

For some families, Starri isn’t just a rhythm game. It is a calm, predictable, even therapeutic way to experience music and movement.

For those families, changing the gameplay, UI, and visual experience all at once was particularly disruptive.

There are also bugs. The UI became more complicated. Some of the visuals can be overstimulating. And some of the core gameplay doesn’t feel as responsive as it should.

We can do better.

We want Starri 2.0 to accommodate the different ways families love to experience Starri. We are going to add more flexibility and options so families can find the Starri experience that works best for them.

Here’s the plan:

• September 16: Our first update will focus on gameplay bugs and detection. We’ll also make sure unwanted visual effects during gameplay can be turned off.
• October 7: Our second update will continue addressing bugs and make art and visual adjustments to reduce overstimulation. We will consult our pediatric advisor on these changes.
• November 4: Our third update will address additional feedback from our families on the first two updates.
• December 2: Our fourth update will introduce a new theme that tones down certain effects and animations to better serve users with sensory sensitivities, including changes to both the UI and gameplay.

The team has already started working on these changes.

It won’t be easy. We have a lot of other work already committed for our Q4 game lineup. But the Starri team is committed to making Starri 2.0 work for more of our families.

I’d be grateful if you and your families would give us the opportunity to make it better.

And please keep telling us what we’re getting right and what we’re still getting wrong. We’re listening.

Love,

David

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P.S. In the meantime, you can already turn off many of the new effects in Settings > Skinand Settings > Gameplay. We’ll continue adding more ways to customize the experience in the upcoming updates.

P.P.S. Why can’t we simply bring back OG Starri as a separate game? All new music and feature development has already moved to Starri 2.0, and our music licenses don’t allow us to ship the same licensed music across two separate games. That’s why our path forward is to make Starri 2.0 flexible enough to better serve the different ways families love to play Starri. Please be patient with us while we get there.