Club Penguin – the Disney‑owned, Flash‑based massively multiplayer online game that ran from 2005 until its shutdown in 2017 – was a formative digital playground for an entire generation of youngsters. Stephen MacDonald, who served as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015, recalls that at its height the platform boasted more than 300 million registered accounts. When Adobe Flash was retired, the beloved penguin world vanished, and Disney’s mobile‑first follow‑up, Club Penguin Island, never managed to capture the same magic.
Launched in 2017, the new title closed its doors in December 2018, barely a year and a half after debuting. In the meantime, Roblox has risen to become the first online experience for many children today. Yet MacDonald argues that Roblox does not replicate the safety‑first philosophy that made Club Penguin a trusted space for young users. "A typical path used to be: a child would start with a preschool‑grade brand like Peppa Pig, then move on to Club Penguin where they learned basic online safety tools, and later graduate to more competitive titles such as Fortnite," he explains.
"Now kids jump straight from Peppa Pig into Roblox, and that leap is too abrupt. The social tools in Roblox expose them to a flood of adult interaction that they aren’t developmentally ready for." He adds that many competitive games turn younger players into "chum in the water" for older teens and adults, making them vulnerable to predatory behavior. This concern is the driving force behind MacDonald’s new venture, Magic Potion Games, which aims to create a spiritual successor to Club Penguin.
Backed by investors including Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures, and Konvoy Ventures, the studio has consulted industry veterans such as Bungie co‑founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co‑founder Lane Merrifield. Their flagship title, Imagine Island, is 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 safe‑first space and give kids a bridge from preschool‑grade products to the broader internet," says MacDonald. "Only after they have mastered those basics should they graduate to platforms like Roblox." MacDonald hails from Kelowna, British Columbia – the same region where New Horizon Interactive originally created Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney acquired the IP in 2007. He spent several years overseeing game design and production for Club Penguin, and he still remembers the extensive safeguards the team put in place. "Most people don’t realize the sheer scale of the effort we invested in child protection," he notes.
"We employed hundreds of live moderators whose sole job was to monitor chat, filter content, and work with law‑enforcement agencies to quickly remove predators." One of the flagship technologies from that era was Community Sift, a chat‑filter and moderation system pioneered by Chris Priebe (brother of Club Penguin developer Lance Priebe). Microsoft acquired the tool in 2021, underscoring its lasting relevance.
MacDonald also describes subtle behavioural nudges: when a player typed something “edgy,” the system silently blocked the message while making it appear to other players that it had been delivered, creating a natural social deterrent. "It’s like telling a joke that falls flat – the player feels the discomfort and learns to self‑moderate," he explains. The demise of Flash ultimately killed Club Penguin, and while MacDonald was not involved in the mobile‑only Club Penguin Island, he believes the shift away from a cross‑platform experience was a misstep.
"There was pressure to go mobile‑only because ‘all kids are on phones’, but a huge portion of our audience still played on PCs. Club Penguin ran on virtually any device – even a toaster – which was part of its secret sauce," he says. "Removing that universal accessibility narrowed the community and weakened the brand." Since Club Penguin’s closure, Roblox has exploded.
Statista reports daily active users grew from 13.7 million in Q4 2018 to 144 million in Q4 2025. MacDonald has watched Roblox’s evolution from a developer‑tool platform to a massive social ecosystem. "Roblox wasn’t designed as a children’s product; it started as a toolbox for creators. Its DNA is fundamentally different from Club Penguin, which was built from the ground up for kids," he observes.
He concedes that Roblox has done an impressive job of engaging users, recalling a moment when his team played the early Roblox game Work at a Pizza Place and realized they were facing a paradigm shift. However, he stresses that platforms hosting children have a responsibility to protect them, a duty he feels is not being fully met by Roblox.
The U.S. Senate recently opened an investigation into Roblox, alleging that the platform prioritises revenue and engagement over child safety. Roblox has responded with incremental safety measures – age verification for chat, a "sensitive issues" content label in 2025, and the removal of direct messaging for users under 13 in 2024 – but MacDonald believes more systemic change is needed.
Imagine Island originated 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 following the closure of his studio, MacDonald re‑connected with former Club Penguin colleagues – Sascha Williams, who once ran the original studio, and Karin Johnson, who headed the party team – to pitch the concept to venture capitalists. Their pitch resonated, and they secured several million dollars to prototype the game.
From the outset, safety was the primary design pillar. "We asked ourselves: how do we moderate effectively?
How do we guarantee that kids are safe online? Those questions shaped every product decision before we even thought about fun," he says. Imagine Island lets players customise avatars, explore a vibrant island, partake in minigames, complete quests, and join community challenges.
The game has already attracted a sizable user base – crossing the one‑million‑user mark within months of its beta launch in August, without any significant marketing spend. Like the original, Imagine Island runs in a web browser thanks to a partnership with CrazyGames, ensuring the same low‑barrier accessibility that made Club Penguin ubiquitous. MacDonald hints at upcoming IP collaborations and an aggressive six‑month marketing rollout, with a major launch event slated for December. Safety remains the cornerstone of the experience.
The studio employs the GGWP moderation suite alongside human moderators and is actively exploring AI‑driven tools to flag risky conversation patterns. "My number‑one rule is: are kids safe?
Everything else comes after that," MacDonald asserts. He likens the environment to a supervised school playground: children can roam in groups, but adults are constantly watching to keep predators out.
While AI shows promise, MacDonald believes human intuition is still unmatched for nuanced judgement, though he expects AI to play a larger role as the platform scales. User‑generated content is permitted, but the game does not allow players to upload raw assets, giving the team tighter control over visual elements. Nevertheless, players can arrange existing assets in unintended ways, requiring additional moderation of virtual spaces. When asked about the cryptic phrase "time‑to‑penis" – a tongue‑in‑cheek reference to how the system subtly blocks inappropriate content – MacDonald laughed, confirming the term was an inside joke among the moderation team.
He stresses that the goal is to make any potentially offensive shapes or messages difficult for children to create, thereby protecting them from accidental exposure. MacDonald acknowledges that the world has changed dramatically since Club Penguin’s heyday. The COVID‑19 pandemic thrust many children into virtual spaces, making online presence as significant as physical interaction. "Virtual worlds became hyper‑important; Roblox turned into a digital mall for a whole generation," he notes.
Yet he sees continuity in how kids play. Features like Roblox’s Adopt Me mirror Club Penguin’s Puffle system almost verbatim, illustrating that the core desire for nurturing, collection, and social interaction persists across platforms. He is surprised by the scarcity of games that truly follow Club Penguin’s safety‑first model. "It blows my mind that there’s such a huge gap – a massive opportunity for a game that respects kids and gives parents peace of mind," he says.
For MacDonald, the responsibility of a game developer extends beyond profit. "I want to deposit something positive into the world, not withdraw.
Anyone who worked on Club Penguin knows how impactful that world was for kids." He recalls 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. Seeing their joy was a punch to the heart – it reminded me how vital video games can be and why we must treat them seriously," he reflects. Imagine Island aims to be that modern, safe haven, offering a bridge between preschool‑grade entertainment and the broader, often chaotic online universe, while keeping child protection at its heart.