Why a New Club Penguin Successor Is Needed—And It Shouldn’t Be Roblox

Club Penguin, the Disney‑owned Flash MMO that ran from 2005 until its shutdown in 2017, was a defining online playground for an entire generation. According to Stephen MacDonald—who served as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015—the platform boasted more than 300 million registered accounts at its height. The demise of Adobe Flash effectively ended that penguin‑filled universe, and the mobile‑only follow‑up, Club Penguin Island, failed to capture the same magic, closing its doors in December 2018, just eighteen months after launch. Today, many children’s first foray into the broader 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 recalls the typical progression: a youngster would start with a preschool‑grade title such as Peppa Pig, then graduate to Club Penguin where they learned basic online safety tools, before eventually moving on to more competitive experiences like Fortnite. "Now kids jump straight from Peppa Pig to Roblox," he says, "and that leap is too abrupt for their age.

They’re suddenly exposed to adult‑centric social tools and environments they aren’t prepared to navigate." MacDonald points out that in many competitive games younger players become "chum in the water" for older teens and adults, making them vulnerable to predatory behavior. To address this gap, he founded Magic Potion Games with the explicit goal of creating a spiritual successor to Club Penguin.

Backed by investors such as Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures, and Konvoy Ventures, and advised by industry veterans including Bungie co‑founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co‑founder Lane Merrifield, the studio is developing Imagine Island. The new title emphasizes live moderation, age‑appropriate safety mechanisms, and targets children aged 6‑13. "Our mission was to return to that niche—offer a safe stepping‑stone for kids coming out of preschool‑level apps," MacDonald explains.

"Then they can graduate to platforms like Roblox when they’re ready." MacDonald lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, the same region where New Horizon Interactive originally built Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney’s acquisition in 2007. He spent several years overseeing game design and production for the original title and recalls the extensive effort required to keep the community safe. "Few people realize how many live moderators we employed—hundreds of staff whose sole job was to protect kids’ content and eject bad actors as quickly as possible.

We worked closely with law‑enforcement agencies to report and remove predators," he says. One of the flagship tools from that era was Community Sift, a chat‑filter and moderation system pioneered by Chris Priebe (brother of Club Penguin developer Lance Priebe) and later purchased by Microsoft in 2021. MacDonald also describes subtle behavioral nudges: if a player typed something edgy, the system would silently block the message while showing the sender that it had been delivered, 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," he notes. The collapse 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 was on phones, but a huge portion of our audience still played on PCs. Club Penguin worked on any device—even a toaster—making it universally accessible. That accessibility was part of the secret sauce," he reflects. Since Club Penguin’s closure, Roblox has exploded, growing from 13.7 million daily active users in Q4 2018 to 144 million in Q4 2025, according to Statista.

MacDonald has been tracking Roblox since its inception, noting that it began as a tools platform rather than a child‑focused product. "The DNA of Roblox is fundamentally different.

Club Penguin was built with kids in mind from day one," he says, while also acknowledging Roblox’s impressive engagement numbers. He admits that Roblox has done a remarkable job of capturing attention, recalling a moment when his team played the early Roblox game Work at a Pizza Place and realized they were in trouble because they lacked the technology to compete. "Roblox represented a radical shift, and we saw Minecraft and Roblox pulling the audience in a new direction.

It was a changing of the guard." Nevertheless, MacDonald stresses that platforms hosting children bear a responsibility to protect them. He cites the recent U.S. Senate investigation into Roblox, which alleges the platform prioritizes revenue and engagement over child safety.

Roblox has responded with age verification for chat, a "sensitive issues" content label in 2025, and the removal of direct messaging for under‑13s in 2024. Imagine Island was conceived by asking, "What is the DNA of Club Penguin that we want to carry forward, and how do 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 and prototype the new game. They secured a few million dollars, built a safety‑first foundation, and then began testing fun. In Imagine Island, players craft custom avatars, explore a vibrant island, complete quests, play mini‑games, and join community challenges.

The title already surpassed one million users only months after its beta launch, without any significant marketing spend. The game is available in browsers through a partnership with CrazyGames, echoing Club Penguin’s cross‑platform accessibility, and plans for IP collaborations and a major marketing push are slated for the coming months. Safety remains the cornerstone.

The studio employs the GGWP moderation suite alongside human moderators and is exploring AI tools to flag risky conversation patterns. "My number one rule is: are kids safe? Everything else comes after that," MacDonald asserts. He likens the world to an elementary school playground—children can roam in groups, but adult supervisors watch over the space to keep predators out.

While AI shows promise, MacDonald believes human intuition still outperforms machines for nuanced moderation. The game also restricts user‑generated content: players cannot upload new assets, allowing the team to control the visual environment, though they must still monitor how users arrange existing assets.

When asked about the phrase "time‑to‑penis," MacDonald laughed and confirmed it was an inside joke about how the system subtly blocks inappropriate content while making the sender feel a social sting, reinforcing the learning loop. He emphasizes that even with robust safeguards, kids will test boundaries.

"If a parent walked by and asked what the child was playing, would the screen pass the sniff test? That’s the lens we keep in mind," he says. The team constantly refines the experience to ensure that accidental exposure to questionable shapes or language is minimized.

The pandemic amplified the importance of virtual worlds for children, turning platforms like Roblox into a digital mall for a generation. Yet MacDonald notes that the core ways kids play have remained consistent—games like Roblox’s Adopt Me are essentially modern versions of Club Penguin’s Puffle system.

He is surprised how few titles have attempted to replicate Club Penguin’s child‑centric model. "It blows my mind.

There’s a huge opportunity," he says, adding that as a developer he feels a responsibility to contribute positively. 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 on him, underscoring his belief that video games can be profoundly meaningful and must be treated with seriousness.