Club Penguin, the Disney‑owned, Flash‑based massively multiplayer online game that ran from 2005 until its shutdown in 2017, was a defining digital playground for an entire generation of kids. According to Stephen MacDonald – a former senior manager at Disney who worked on the title from 2012 to 2015 – the platform boasted more than 300 million registered accounts at its height.
The demise of Adobe Flash effectively ended that penguin‑filled world, and the mobile‑first follow‑up, Club Penguin Island, never managed to capture the same magic; it closed its doors in December 2018, barely a year and a half after launch. Today, many children’s first forays into the broader internet come via Roblox.
While Roblox has grown into a cultural juggernaut, MacDonald argues that it cannot replace the safety‑first philosophy that Club Penguin championed. He recalls a typical progression for young users: "A child might start with a preschool‑oriented brand like Peppa Pig, then move on to Club Penguin to learn basic online safety tools, and later graduate to more competitive titles such as Fortnite." In contrast, he warns that many kids now jump straight from Peppa Pig to Roblox, a leap he believes is too risky for that age group.
"They’re not prepared for the social dynamics and the adult‑centric interactions that can surface on platforms like Roblox," he says. "In many competitive games they become easy prey for older players, and the social environment can be unsafe." Motivated by this gap, MacDonald founded Magic Potion Games with the explicit goal of delivering a spiritual successor to Club Penguin.
The venture has attracted backing from Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures, and Konvoy Ventures, and it has consulted industry veterans such as Bungie co‑founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co‑founder Lane Merrifield. Their flagship title, Imagine Island, is being built around live moderation, age‑appropriate safety mechanisms, and a target audience of children aged six to thirteen. “Our mission was to go back into that space and offer something for kids coming out of preschool‑level products,” MacDonald explains.
“Then they can graduate to something like Roblox or beyond.” MacDonald is based in Kelowna, British Columbia – the same city where New Horizon Interactive first created Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney acquired the property in 2007. He spent several years overseeing game design and production on the original title and remembers the extensive measures taken to protect young players. “Very few people realized how much effort went into safeguarding the community,” he notes. “We had hundreds of live moderators whose sole job was to keep harmful content out, to work with law‑enforcement agencies, and to ensure predators were swiftly removed.” One of the technical achievements from that era was the development of Community Sift, a sophisticated chat‑filter and moderation system spearheaded by Chris Priebe (brother of Club Penguin developer Lance Priebe).
Microsoft acquired the technology in 2021, underscoring its forward‑looking design. Beyond brute‑force filtering, the original game employed subtle behavioural nudges. MacDonald recounts an example where a player attempted to send an “edgy” message.
The system would silently block the text while showing the player that the message appeared to be sent, creating an awkward silence that discouraged further attempts. "It was like telling a joke that no one laughed at – the player feels the discomfort and adjusts their behavior," he says. This kind of social engineering helped shape a community where inappropriate content rarely surfaced.
The transition to mobile with Club Penguin Island, however, was a misstep in MacDonald’s view. “There was a rush to go mobile because everyone thought kids only used phones,” he recalls.
“But a huge portion of our audience still played on PCs because the game ran on virtually any device – even a toaster. That accessibility was part of the secret sauce.” 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 has been watching this growth closely.
“Roblox started as a toolbox platform, not a kid‑centric product,” he says. “Club Penguin was built from the ground up for children, so the DNA of the two services is fundamentally different.” He does give credit where it’s due: “When we first played ‘Work at a Pizza Place’ on Roblox, I realized we were in trouble because we didn’t have the technology to compete with what Roblox was offering. It was a radical shift, and we saw Minecraft, Roblox, and other titles pulling the audience in a new direction.
It was clearly a changing of the guard.” Nevertheless, MacDonald stresses that platforms hosting children bear a heightened responsibility. Recent U.S. Senate investigations have scrutinised Roblox for allegedly prioritising revenue and engagement over child safety. Roblox has responded by requiring age verification for chat, introducing a “sensitive issues” content label in 2025, and disabling direct messaging for users under 13 in 2024.
These steps, while welcome, still fall short of the comprehensive safeguards MacDonald envisions. Imagine Island was born from a simple question: "What are the core DNA elements of Club Penguin that we can carry forward, and how do we adapt them for a new generation that plays differently?" After leaving Electronic Arts in 2023, following the closure of his studio, MacDonald re‑connected with former Club Penguin colleagues – Sascha Williams, who once ran the Club Penguin studio, and Karin Johnson, who led the party team. Together they pitched the concept to venture capitalists and secured several million dollars to prototype the new world. The development philosophy placed safety at the top of the priority list.
"We asked ourselves: how do we moderate? How do we ensure kids are safe online?
Those were the foundational rules before we even thought about fun," MacDonald explains. The resulting gameplay loop lets players craft a custom avatar, explore a vibrant island, tackle minigames, complete quests, and join community challenges. Within months of its beta launch in August, the title surpassed one million users without any significant marketing spend.
Imagine Island mirrors Club Penguin’s cross‑platform accessibility by being playable in a web browser, thanks to a partnership with CrazyGames. MacDonald hints at upcoming intellectual‑property collaborations and a “big” marketing push slated for December, describing it as a moment he’s eagerly anticipating. Safety remains the north star.
The game employs the GGWP moderation suite alongside human moderators, and MacDonald is optimistic about 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 can roam in small groups, but adults are constantly watching to keep predators at bay. While AI shows promise, MacDonald cautions that it still cannot match human intuition. “I don’t think AI is anywhere near what a human with intuition can do right now. As we scale, we’ll certainly explore it, but human oversight remains essential.” User‑generated content is allowed, but the platform restricts asset uploads, giving the team control over what appears in the world.
Still, players can arrange existing assets in ways that might be inappropriate, so moderation extends to spatial design as well. When asked about a cryptic phrase that appeared in internal discussions, MacDonald laughed, “A hundred percent – that’s what I was dancing around, but you said it more eloquently.” He reiterated that safety is the first priority, noting that children will inevitably test boundaries. "If a parent walked by and asked what the child was playing, would the screen pass the parental sniff test?
That’s the lens we keep in mind." The COVID‑19 pandemic amplified the importance of virtual spaces for children, many of whom spent formative years online. "Kids learned that their virtual presence mattered as much as their physical one," MacDonald observes. He sees parallels between Roblox’s popular "Adopt Me" and Club Penguin’s beloved Puffle system, noting that the core desire to collect, care for, and showcase virtual pets endures across platforms. MacDonald is surprised by the scarcity of games that have tried to recapture Club Penguin’s spirit.
"It blows my mind. There’s a huge opportunity to do something meaningful," he says.
He feels a deep responsibility as a developer, wanting his work to be a positive contribution rather than a fleeting distraction. "If you worked on Club Penguin, you understand its impact. I want this to be a deposit in the world bank, not a withdrawal." He recounts a poignant moment when the Make‑A‑Wish Foundation brought a terminally ill child to the Club Penguin studio. "We drew them as a penguin," he remembers, describing the experience as a "punch to the heart" that underscored how video games can matter profoundly.
In summary, Stephen MacDonald believes that a new, safety‑centric virtual world for kids is not just desirable but essential. Imagine Island aims to blend the nostalgic charm of Club Penguin with modern technology, robust moderation, and a clear focus on protecting its young audience while still delivering fun, engaging experiences.