Club Penguin, Disney’s Flash‑based massively multiplayer online game that ran from 2005 until 2017, shaped the online experiences of a whole generation of kids. Stephen MacDonald, who served as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015, points out that at its height the platform boasted more than 300 million registered accounts. When Adobe Flash was retired, the penguin world vanished, and its mobile‑only successor, 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. In the meantime, Roblox has become many children’s first foray into the broader internet, but MacDonald argues that the platform does not replicate the safety‑first philosophy that made Club Penguin a trusted space.
"Kids used to move from preschool‑grade titles like Peppa Pig straight into Club Penguin, where they learned how to stay safe online and practiced using protective tools. After that they would graduate to games such as Fortnite," he explains. "Now the path is Peppa Pig → Roblox, and that jump is too abrupt for younger children. They aren’t ready for the social dynamics and the adult‑filled environments they encounter on Roblox." He adds that competitive games often treat younger players as easy targets for older teens and adults, creating a situation where predators can exploit the lack of safeguards.
This concern motivated MacDonald to launch Magic Potion Games, a studio backed by Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures and Konvoy Ventures, and advised by industry veterans like Bungie founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co‑founder Lane Merrifield. Their upcoming title, Imagine Island, is designed with live moderation, age‑appropriate safety mechanisms, and a target audience of 6‑ to 13‑year‑olds.
"Our mission was to re‑enter that safe‑play space and give kids a stepping‑stone after preschool products," MacDonald says. "Then they can move on to platforms like Roblox when they’re ready." MacDonald lives in Kelowna, British Columbia – the same city where New Horizon Interactive first built Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney bought it in 2007. He oversaw game design and production for several years and recalls the extensive effort that went into protecting young users. "Very few people realized how many live moderators we employed – hundreds of people whose sole job was to keep harmful content out and to work with law‑enforcement when predators were identified," he notes.
"We also created the technology that later became Community Sift, a chat‑filter and moderation system pioneered by Chris Priebe and later acquired by Microsoft in 2021. It was cutting‑edge at the time." Beyond brute‑force moderation, the original game used subtle behavioral nudges. For example, if a player typed something edgy, the system would silently block the message while showing the player that it had been “sent,” creating a social cue that the joke fell flat.
This encouraged users to self‑regulate their language without feeling censored. Club Penguin’s demise was ultimately tied to Flash’s obsolescence. MacDonald was not involved with Club Penguin Island and believes the mobile‑only pivot was misguided. "There was pressure to chase a mobile‑only model because everyone said kids were on phones.
Yet a large segment of our audience still accessed the game on PCs – it even ran on a toaster. That universality was part of the secret sauce," he says. Since Club Penguin’s shutdown, 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 tracked Roblox from its early days, noting that it began as a tool‑creation platform rather than a children‑first product.
"Club Penguin was built with kids in mind from day one; Roblox’s DNA is fundamentally different," he observes. He does give Roblox credit for its massive audience engagement.
"When I first saw designers playing ‘Work at a Pizza Place’ on Roblox, I realized we were in trouble because we didn’t have the tech to compete," he recalls. "It was a radical shift, and we watched Minecraft, Roblox and others pull the younger crowd in a new direction." MacDonald’s concern is that platforms with large child user bases must assume responsibility for their safety. Recent U.S.
Senate scrutiny of Roblox highlights this issue, accusing the platform of prioritising revenue and engagement over child protection. Roblox has since introduced age verification for chat, a “sensitive issues” content label, and in 2024 blocked direct messaging for users under 13.
Imagine Island emerged from a simple question: "What core DNA of 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 re‑connected with former Club Penguin colleagues – Sascha Williams and Karin Johnson – and secured venture capital to prototype the new world. Their first rule was safety; only after establishing robust moderation did they start testing fun. The gameplay loop mirrors the original: players craft a custom avatar, explore a vibrant island, complete quests, play minigames, and join community challenges. Within a few months of its August beta launch, Imagine Island surpassed one million users without any major marketing spend.
The title is browser‑playable through a partnership with CrazyGames, echoing Club Penguin’s accessibility, and the team plans a larger marketing push later in the year. Safety remains the north star. In addition to human moderators, the game employs the GGWP moderation suite and is experimenting with AI tools that can flag risky conversation patterns. "My number‑one rule is: are kids safe?
Everything else comes after that," MacDonald emphasizes. He likens the environment to a supervised school playground where adults watch over groups of children, ensuring no harmful actors slip in. While AI is promising, MacDonald believes human intuition still outperforms machines.
"AI isn’t anywhere near what a human can sense right now, but as we scale we’ll incorporate more automation," he says. User‑generated content is permitted, but the platform restricts asset uploads, allowing the team to control visual elements. Nevertheless, players can arrange existing assets in unexpected ways, requiring continuous moderation of in‑game spaces. When asked about the infamous "time‑to‑penis" glitch, MacDonald laughed, confirming it as a real issue they monitor closely.
He stresses that any content that could be misinterpreted is filtered out to keep the experience parent‑friendly. The pandemic accelerated the importance of virtual worlds for children, turning online spaces into extensions of their social lives. MacDonald notes that Roblox’s “Adopt Me!” mirrors Club Penguin’s Puffle system, showing how core mechanics endure across generations. He is surprised how few modern titles have attempted to recreate Club Penguin’s safe‑play model.
"There’s a massive opportunity to fill that gap," he says. For MacDonald, developing Imagine Island feels like a moral duty. "I want this to be a positive deposit in the world, not a withdrawal.
Anyone who worked on Club Penguin knows how impactful it was." He recalls a Make‑A‑Wish visit where a child with a terminal illness toured the Club Penguin studio and was drawn as a penguin – a moment he describes as a "punch to the heart" that underscored the profound responsibility game creators hold. In short, Imagine Island aims to revive the safe, whimsical spirit of Club Penguin while leveraging modern technology and a steadfast commitment to child protection, offering a bridge between preschool entertainment and the more open‑ended worlds of platforms like Roblox.