Club Penguin, the Disney‑owned Flash‑based massively multiplayer online game that ran from 2005 until its shutdown in 2017, was a defining part of many children’s digital upbringing. Stephen MacDonald, who served as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015, recalls that the platform once boasted more than 300 million registered accounts at its height. When Adobe Flash was retired, the beloved penguin world could no longer run, and Disney’s mobile‑first replacement, Club Penguin Island, never gained traction; it closed its doors in December 2018, barely a year and a half after launch.
In the meantime, Roblox has risen to become the first online experience for countless youngsters, but MacDonald argues that Roblox does not replicate the safety‑first philosophy that Club Penguin offered. "A typical path used to be: a child starts with a preschool‑grade title like Peppa Pig, then moves on to Club Penguin where they learn basic online safety tools, and later they graduate to games such as Fortnite," he explains. "Now the trajectory is Peppa Pig straight to Roblox, and that jump skips a crucial safety checkpoint. Young kids aren’t prepared for the social dynamics and the adult‑filled environments they encounter on Roblox." He adds that many competitive titles turn younger players into "chum in the water" for older teens and adults, exposing them to predatory behaviour.
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 co‑founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co‑founder Lane Merrifield. Their flagship project, 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 return to that space and give kids coming from a preschool product a safe, intermediate world," MacDonald says. "After they’ve learned the basics here, they can move on to something like Roblox with a stronger foundation." MacDonald lives in Kelowna, British Columbia—the same city where New Horizon Interactive first created Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney’s acquisition in 2007. He oversaw game design and production for Club Penguin for several years and remembers the extensive safeguards the original team built.
"Few people realized how much effort went into protecting kids," he notes. "We had hundreds of live moderators whose sole job was to keep harmful content out and to work closely with law‑enforcement to remove predators as quickly as possible." He also points to the development of Community Sift, a sophisticated chat‑filter and moderation system pioneered by Chris Priebe (brother of Club Penguin developer Lance Priebe) and later purchased by Microsoft in 2021. "It was cutting‑edge for its era," MacDonald adds. Beyond technology, the original game employed subtle behavioural nudges.
For example, if a player typed a borderline phrase, the system would appear to deliver the message to other players but would silently block it, creating an uncomfortable silence that discouraged the user from repeating the offense. This kind of social engineering helped shape a community where inappropriate content rarely slipped through. The demise of Club Penguin was tied directly to the end of Flash, and while MacDonald was not involved with the mobile‑only Club Penguin Island, he believes the shift to mobile was misguided.
"There was pressure to go mobile‑only because everyone was on phones, but a large segment of our audience still played on PCs. Club Penguin ran on anything—from a high‑end desktop to a basic toaster. That universal accessibility was part of its secret sauce," he says.
Since Club Penguin’s closure, Roblox’s user base 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 tools platform rather than a child‑focused product, which makes its DNA fundamentally different from Club Penguin’s. He does acknowledge Roblox’s success: "When we first saw Work at a Pizza Place on Roblox, we realized we were in trouble because they had technology we didn’t possess at the time.
It was a radical shift, and we watched Minecraft, Roblox and other titles pull the younger audience in a new direction." Nevertheless, he stresses that platforms hosting children bear a responsibility to protect them. Recent U.S. Senate investigations have accused Roblox of prioritising revenue and engagement over child safety.
Roblox has responded with age verification for chat, a "sensitive issues" content label in 2025, and restrictions on direct messaging for under‑13s introduced in 2024. Imagine Island was born from a simple question: "What core DNA of Club Penguin should we 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.
They secured a few million dollars to prototype Imagine Island, making safety the foundation before layering fun on top. The game lets players design a custom avatar, explore a vibrant island, complete quests, play mini‑games and join community challenges.
Within months of its beta launch in August, it surpassed one million users without any major marketing spend. Like its predecessor, Imagine Island runs in a web browser via a partnership with CrazyGames, and the team plans IP collaborations and 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 risky conversation patterns.
"My number‑one rule is: are kids safe? Everything else comes after that," MacDonald asserts.
He likens the environment to an elementary school playground: children can roam in groups, but adults constantly supervise to keep predators out. While AI is promising, he believes human intuition still outperforms automated systems, though he expects AI to play a larger role as the platform scales.
User‑generated content is allowed, but the game does not let players upload new assets, giving the team control over what can appear. Even so, arranging existing assets in undesirable ways requires additional moderation.
When asked about a puzzling phrase that appeared in the transcript, MacDonald laughed, confirming it was an inside joke that had been softened for public consumption. He reiterates that safety is the baseline before any other feature. Parents, he says, should be able to glance at the screen and feel comfortable with what they see. "We run an 'over‑the‑shoulder' test: if a parent walked by and asked what the child was playing, would Imagine Island pass their sniff test?
That's the lens we use." The pandemic amplified the importance of virtual worlds for children, turning them into social hubs akin to a digital mall. MacDonald notes that many Roblox experiences, such as Adopt Me, are direct descendants of Club Penguin mechanics like the Puffle system.
He is surprised how few games have attempted to recreate Club Penguin’s safe, child‑centric model. "It blows my mind—there’s a huge opportunity," he says. For MacDonald, developing a game carries a moral responsibility.
He wants Imagine Island to be a positive contribution, a "deposit in the world bank" rather than a withdrawal. He recalls a Make‑A‑Wish visit where a terminally ill child got to see the Club Penguin studio; the experience was a "punch to the heart" that reinforced his belief in the profound impact games can have. In summary, Imagine Island aims to fill the safety gap left by Club Penguin’s disappearance, offering a moderated, age‑appropriate online playground that prepares children for the broader internet while shielding them from its dangers.