Club Penguin, Disney's flash‑based massively multiplayer online game that ran from 2005 until 2017, shaped the online experiences of a whole generation. According to Stephen MacDonald—who worked as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015—the platform once boasted more than 300 million registered accounts at its height. The shutdown of Adobe Flash effectively ended that penguin‑filled world, and its mobile successor, Club Penguin Island, never managed to capture the same magic; it was discontinued in December 2018, just eighteen months after launch.
Today, many children’s first foray into the internet comes via Roblox. While Roblox has become a cultural juggernaut, MacDonald argues that it cannot replace the safety‑first philosophy that Club Penguin offered.
He explains that traditionally a child would graduate from preschool‑age titles such as Peppa Pig to Club Penguin, where they learned basic online‑safety skills before moving on to more competitive environments like Fortnite. "Now kids jump straight from Peppa Pig to Roblox," he says, "and that leap is too risky for their age.
They are thrust into a space where they must interact with countless adults and competitive players, often without the protective tools they need." MacDonald’s concerns are not limited to social exposure. He warns that younger players can become easy prey in many competitive games, where they are outmatched by older teens and adults.
This perception motivated him to launch Magic Potion Games, a studio 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 title, Imagine Island, is built around live moderation, age‑appropriate safety mechanisms, and a target audience of 6‑ to 13‑year‑olds. "Our goal was to re‑enter that safe‑space market and give kids a stepping‑stone between preschool apps and platforms like Roblox," MacDonald says.
He is based in Kelowna, British Columbia—the same city where New Horizon Interactive originally created Club Penguin before Disney’s 2007 acquisition. During his tenure, MacDonald oversaw game design and production, witnessing first‑hand the extensive resources devoted to protecting young users. "Few people realize how many live moderators we employed—hundreds of people whose job was to keep the chat clean, block predators, and coordinate with law enforcement to remove bad actors quickly," he notes.
One of the pioneering tools from that era was Community Sift, a chat‑filter and moderation system spearheaded by Chris Priebe (brother of Club Penguin developer Lance Priebe). Microsoft purchased the technology in 2021, underscoring its forward‑thinking design. Beyond automated filters, Club Penguin used subtle behavioural nudges.
For example, if a player typed something edgy, the system would silently block the message while making it appear to others as if it had been sent, creating a social cue that discouraged inappropriate language. "It was a form of social engineering that taught kids which jokes landed and which didn’t," MacDonald explains. The demise of Flash sealed Club Penguin’s fate, and MacDonald believes the mobile‑only pivot of Club Penguin Island was misguided.
"There was pressure to go mobile because everyone seemed to be on phones, but a huge part of our audience still played on PCs. The original game ran on virtually any device—even a toaster—making it universally accessible. That accessibility was part of its secret sauce," he says.
Since Club Penguin’s closure, Roblox’s user base has exploded, rising from 13.7 million daily active users in Q4 2018 to 144 million in Q4 2025, according to Statista. MacDonald acknowledges Roblox’s success but stresses a fundamental difference: Roblox was built as a tool platform for creators, not as a children‑first environment. "Club Penguin was purpose‑built for kids; Roblox was a sandbox for anyone," he observes.
He also points out that the US Senate recently opened an inquiry into Roblox, accusing the platform of prioritising revenue over child safety. Roblox has since added age verification for chat, a "sensitive issues" content tag, and blocked direct messaging for under‑13s, but MacDonald feels these steps are reactive rather than proactive. Imagine Island originated from a simple question: "What DNA from Club Penguin should we carry forward, and how can we adapt it for a new generation that plays differently?" After leaving Electronic Arts in 2023, MacDonald reunited with former Club Penguin colleagues—Sascha Williams and Karin Johnson—to raise venture capital. They secured a few million dollars, built a prototype, and made safety the core pillar from day one.
"We defined fundamental safety rules, then we started testing fun," he says. The game lets players customise avatars, explore a vibrant island, complete quests, play minigames, and join community challenges.
Within months of its August beta launch, Imagine Island surpassed one million users without any major marketing spend. Like its predecessor, the new title is browser‑playable through a partnership with CrazyGames, and the team plans IP collaborations and a larger marketing push later this year.
Safety remains non‑negotiable. Imagine Island employs the GGWP moderation suite alongside human moderators, and the studio is exploring AI tools to flag risky conversation patterns. "My number‑one rule is: are kids safe? Everything else comes after that," MacDonald stresses.
He likens the environment to a supervised school playground—children can roam in groups, but adults are constantly watching for trouble. While AI shows promise, MacDonald believes human intuition still outperforms algorithms.
"AI isn’t yet at the level of a human moderator’s gut feeling, but as we scale we’ll incorporate more automated checks," he notes. The game also limits user‑generated content: players cannot upload new assets, which helps control the visual landscape, though they can rearrange existing items in potentially problematic ways, requiring additional moderation.
When asked about a cryptic phrase that appeared in a transcript, MacDonald laughed, confirming it was an inside joke about the challenges of moderating user‑created shapes. He reiterates that safety is the baseline before any other feature. "If a parent walked by and saw their child playing Imagine Island, would the screen pass a parental sniff test? That’s the standard we hold ourselves to," he explains.
The team constantly evaluates whether in‑game elements could be misinterpreted or misused. The world has changed dramatically since Club Penguin’s shutdown, especially after the COVID‑19 pandemic, which pushed many children into virtual spaces as essential social outlets. Roblox became a digital mall for a generation, yet many of its popular experiences—such as the "Adopt Me" game—mirror Club Penguin’s classic Puffle system, showing that core play patterns endure. MacDonald is surprised by the scarcity of games that have tried to replicate Club Penguin’s safe‑first model.
"There’s a huge opportunity to fill that gap," he says. He feels a personal responsibility to deliver a positive message through his work, describing his contribution as a "deposit in the world bank" rather than a withdrawal. He recalls a poignant moment when the Make‑A‑Wish Foundation brought a terminally ill child to see the Club Penguin studio; drawing the child as a penguin left a lasting emotional impact, reinforcing his belief that video games can be profoundly meaningful when handled responsibly.