Club Penguin, Disney’s flash‑based massively multiplayer online game that ran from 2005 until its shutdown in 2017, was a defining part of many youngsters’ digital childhoods. According to Stephen MacDonald—who served as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015—the platform once boasted more than 300 million registered accounts at its height. When Adobe Flash was retired, the beloved penguin world vanished, and Disney’s mobile‑first follow‑up, Club Penguin Island, failed to capture the same magic, closing its doors in December 2018, barely a year and a half after launch.
In the vacuum that followed, Roblox has emerged as the default gateway for many children into the broader online gaming ecosystem. Yet MacDonald argues that Roblox does not replicate the safety‑first philosophy that made Club Penguin a trusted space for kids. "A typical path used to be: a preschool‑oriented title like Peppa Pig, then Club Penguin where kids learned basic online safety tools, and later they would graduate to more competitive experiences such as Fortnite," he explains.
"Now the trajectory is Peppa Pig straight to Roblox, and that leap skips a crucial safety learning stage. Young children aren’t prepared for the adult‑centric social tools and open‑world interactions that Roblox offers." He adds that in many competitive games, younger players become "chum in the water" for older teens and adults, exposing them to predatory behavior.
This concern motivated MacDonald to launch Magic Potion Games, a venture backed by Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures, and Konvoy Ventures, and advised by industry veterans such as Bungie co‑founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co‑founder Lane Merrifield. Their flagship project, Imagine Island, is being built with live moderation, age‑appropriate safety mechanisms, and a target audience of 6‑ to 13‑year‑olds. "Our goal was to re‑enter that safe‑play space and give kids a bridge from preschool titles to more open platforms like Roblox," MacDonald says. "Imagine Island should be the stepping‑stone that lets them graduate safely." MacDonald lives in Kelowna, British Columbia—the same region where New Horizon Interactive originally created Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney’s acquisition in 2007.
He oversaw game design and production for several years and recalls the extensive safeguards Disney employed. "Few people realized the sheer scale of the moderation effort," he notes.
"We had hundreds of live moderators whose sole job was to protect children’s content and keep bad actors out. We worked closely with law‑enforcement agencies to report and remove predators as quickly as possible." One of the flagship tools was Community Sift, a chat‑filter and moderation system pioneered by Chris Priebe (brother of Club Penguin developer Lance Priebe) and later acquired by Microsoft in 2021.
MacDonald describes it as "cutting‑edge for its time." Beyond technology, the team used subtle behavioural nudges. For example, if a player typed an edgy phrase, the system would silently block the message while showing the player that it had been “sent,” creating an uncomfortable silence that discouraged further inappropriate attempts.
"It’s like telling a joke that no one laughs at; the player feels the social cue and adjusts," MacDonald explains. This kind of engineered feedback helped shape a community where acceptable content naturally rose to the surface. The demise of Club Penguin was ultimately tied to the end of Flash. Although MacDonald was not involved in the mobile‑only Club Penguin Island, he believes the shift to mobile‑exclusive design was a misstep.
"There was pressure to go mobile because everyone thought kids only used phones," he recalls. "But a huge segment still played on PCs because the original game ran on any device—even a toaster.
That universality was part of the secret sauce." Since Club Penguin’s closure, Roblox’s user base has exploded, growing from 13.7 million daily active users in Q4 2018 to 144 million in Q4 2025, according to Statista. MacDonald has monitored Roblox from its inception, noting that it began as a toolbox platform rather than a child‑focused product. "Club Penguin was built from the ground up for kids; Roblox was built for creators of all ages," he says. He does credit Roblox for its massive engagement, recalling a meeting where his team played the early Roblox game "Work at a Pizza Place" and realized they were in trouble because they lacked comparable technology.
"We were watching Minecraft, Roblox, and other titles pull the audience in a new direction. It was a clear changing of the guard," he says.
Nevertheless, MacDonald stresses that platforms hosting children bear a responsibility to protect them. Recent scrutiny from the U.S. Senate, which launched an investigation into Roblox’s child‑safety practices, underscores this point.
Roblox has since added age verification for chat, introduced a "sensitive issues" content label in 2025, and disabled direct messaging for under‑13s in 2024. Imagine Island was conceived by asking, "What DNA from Club Penguin should we carry forward, and how do we adapt it for a new generation that plays differently?" After leaving Electronic Arts in 2023, MacDonald re‑connected with former Club Penguin colleagues—Sascha Williams and Karin Johnson—to raise venture capital. Their pitch resonated, securing several million dollars to prototype the new world.
The prototype focused first on safety: establishing core moderation rules before layering fun. The resulting gameplay lets children design a custom avatar, explore a vibrant island, complete quests, play minigames, and join community challenges.
Within months of its beta launch in August, Imagine Island surpassed one million users without any paid marketing spend. Like its predecessor, the game runs in a browser thanks to a partnership with CrazyGames, and the team plans IP collaborations and a larger marketing push in the coming months.
"December will be a big moment for us," MacDonald hints. Safety remains the north star. The studio employs the GGWP moderation suite alongside human reviewers and is exploring AI tools that can flag risky conversation patterns.
"My number one rule is: are kids safe? Everything else comes after that," he asserts.
He likens the environment to an elementary school playground: children roam in small groups, but adults constantly supervise to keep predators at bay. While AI can assist, MacDonald believes human intuition is still superior for nuanced decisions, though he expects AI to play a larger role as the platform scales.
User‑generated content is permitted, but the system restricts asset uploads, allowing the team to control visual elements. Even so, players can arrange existing assets in potentially problematic ways, requiring additional moderation of in‑game spaces.
When asked about the infamous "time‑to‑penis" meme—a reference to a hidden shape that could be formed by certain in‑game objects—MacDonald laughed, confirming the team is aware and actively works to prevent such inadvertent content from appearing. He reiterates that parental perception is a key test: "If a parent walks by and asks what the child is playing, would Imagine Island pass the sniff test?" The answer, he hopes, is a resounding yes. The pandemic accelerated the importance of virtual worlds for children, many of whom spent formative years online. "Virtual presence became as vital as physical presence," MacDonald observes, noting that Roblox has effectively become a digital mall for a generation.
Yet he sees continuity in play patterns; for instance, Roblox’s popular "Adopt Me" mirrors Club Penguin’s beloved Puffle system. He is surprised by the scarcity of games that have tried to replicate Club Penguin’s safe‑play model, describing the gap as a massive opportunity. "I feel a responsibility as a developer to deliver a positive message, to make a deposit in the world’s cultural bank rather than a withdrawal," he says.
A poignant memory for MacDonald is a Make‑A‑Wish visit where a terminally ill child toured the Club Penguin studio. "We drew them as a penguin," he recalls, describing the experience as a "punch to the heart" that underscored the profound impact games can have on real lives. In summary, Imagine Island aims to revive the protective, community‑focused spirit of Club Penguin while embracing modern technology and the expectations of today’s young gamers. By placing child safety at the forefront and blending it with engaging, age‑appropriate content, MacDonald and his team hope to give the next generation a safe digital playground that prepares them for the broader online world without exposing them to unnecessary risk.