Club Penguin, the Disney‑owned Flash‑based MMO that entertained kids from 2005 until its shutdown in 2017, was a defining part of many childhoods. Stephen MacDonald, who served as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015, notes that the platform once boasted more than 300 million registered accounts at its height.
When Adobe Flash was retired, the beloved penguin world vanished, and its mobile‑only successor, Club Penguin Island, never managed to capture the same magic—closing its doors in December 2018, barely a year and a half after launch. Today, Roblox has become the first online playground for countless children. Yet MacDonald argues that Roblox cannot replace the safety‑first philosophy that Club Penguin embodied.
"A typical path used to be: a kid would start with a preschool‑grade title like Peppa Pig, then move on to Club Penguin where they learned basic online safety tools, and later graduate to games such as Fortnite," he explains. "Now the trajectory looks more like Peppa Pig straight to Roblox, and that leap is too abrupt for young children. They aren’t prepared for the adult‑centric social features and competitive environments they encounter." He adds that in many competitive titles, younger players become "chum in the water" for older teens and adults, exposing them to predatory behavior and other risks.
To fill this safety gap, MacDonald founded Magic Potion Games, a venture backed by Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures, and Konvoy Ventures. He has also consulted industry veterans such as Bungie co‑founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co‑founder Lane Merrifield.
Their upcoming title, Imagine Island, is being built around live moderation, age‑appropriate safeguards, and a target audience of 6‑ to 13‑year‑olds. "Our mission was simple: return to that space and give kids a safe stepping‑stone after preschool products," MacDonald says. "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 first created Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney acquired it in 2007.
He oversaw game design and production for several years and recalls the extensive effort required to keep the community safe. "Few people realize how many live moderators we employed—hundreds dedicated to protecting children’s content and ejecting bad actors. We worked closely with law enforcement to report predators and remove them swiftly," he notes.
He also mentions the development of Community Sift, a sophisticated chat‑filter and moderation system spearheaded by Chris Priebe (brother of Club Penguin developer Lance Priebe) and later purchased by Microsoft in 2021. At the time, it was cutting‑edge technology. Beyond technical tools, 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 an uncomfortable silence that discouraged inappropriate language. This kind of social engineering helped shape the community’s tone. The demise of Club Penguin was ultimately tied to Flash’s obsolescence.
MacDonald was not involved in Club Penguin Island and believes the mobile‑first pivot was misguided. "There was pressure to go mobile because everyone’s on phones, but a large portion of our audience still played on PCs. Club Penguin ran on anything—from a high‑end desktop to a toaster—making it universally accessible. That accessibility was a core part of its success," he says.
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 monitoring Roblox since its early days.
"Roblox started as a tool platform, not a children’s product. Its DNA is fundamentally different from Club Penguin, which was built specifically for kids," he observes. He does, however, give credit to Roblox for its massive audience engagement. He recounts 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 with Roblox’s rapid innovation.
He acknowledges that Roblox has pushed the industry forward but stresses that platforms hosting children bear a heavy responsibility. The U.S. Senate recently opened an inquiry into Roblox, alleging that the platform may prioritize revenue and engagement over child safety.
Roblox has since introduced age verification for chat, a "sensitive issues" content label in 2025, and in 2024 restricted direct messaging for users under 13. Imagine Island emerged from a simple question: "What is the DNA of Club Penguin that we should 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—to raise venture capital and prototype the new game. They secured a few million dollars and built safety into the product from day one, establishing core moderation rules before layering on fun.
In Imagine Island, players craft custom avatars, explore a vibrant world, tackle minigames, complete quests, and join community challenges. The title reached over one million users within months of its beta launch in August, despite minimal marketing spend. Like its predecessor, the game runs in a web browser through a partnership with CrazyGames, and the team plans a larger marketing push later this year.
Safety remains the top priority. The studio employs the GGWP moderation suite alongside human moderators and is exploring AI tools that can detect problematic conversation patterns. MacDonald stresses that human intuition still outperforms AI, but he sees AI as a future supplement as the player base scales.
User‑generated content is allowed, but the platform restricts asset uploads, giving the team control over visual elements. Even so, players can arrange existing assets in undesirable ways, requiring ongoing moderation of player‑created spaces. When asked about the odd phrase "time‑to‑penis" that appears in the interview transcript, MacDonald laughed and confirmed it was a tongue‑in‑cheek reference to the kind of off‑color jokes the original game quietly blocked, reinforcing the idea that the system should make uncomfortable jokes fail silently. He reiterates that the ultimate test is the "over‑the‑shoulder" test: if a parent walked by and saw a child playing Imagine Island, would the content pass a parent’s sniff test?
The team designs every interaction with that mental image in mind. MacDonald also reflects on how the COVID‑19 pandemic accelerated virtual socialization for children, turning online worlds into essential spaces. He notes that many Roblox experiences, such as the popular Adopt Me, are direct descendants of Club Penguin’s Puffle system.
He is surprised that few modern games have attempted to replicate Club Penguin’s safe, community‑focused model, seeing a huge market opportunity. "As a developer, I feel a responsibility to contribute something positive. I want this to be a deposit in the world’s cultural bank, not a withdrawal," he says.
He recalls a poignant moment when the Make‑A‑Wish Foundation brought a terminally ill child to see the Club Penguin studio. "We drew them as a penguin," he remembers, describing it as a "punch to the heart" that underscored how seriously video games should be taken as a medium that can touch lives. In summary, Imagine Island aims to revive the spirit of Club Penguin while integrating modern technology and a relentless focus on child safety, offering a much‑needed bridge between preschool entertainment and the broader, often unsafe, online gaming landscape.