Club Penguin, Disney’s Flash‑based massively‑multiplayer online game that ran from 2005 until 2017, was a defining digital playground for a whole generation. According to Stephen MacDonald—who served as a senior manager at Disney between 2012 and 2015—the platform peaked with more than 300 million registered accounts. The shutdown of Adobe Flash effectively ended that penguin‑filled world, and its mobile‑only successor, Club Penguin Island, never managed to capture the same magic; it closed its doors in December 2018, just eighteen months after launch.
Today, many children’s first foray into the internet comes via Roblox. MacDonald, however, argues that Roblox cannot replace the safety‑first ethos that Club Penguin embodied. He explains that the typical progression used to be a preschool‑age offering such as Peppa Pig, followed by Club Penguin where youngsters learned basic online safety tools, before eventually moving on to more competitive titles like Fortnite.
"Now kids jump straight from Peppa Pig to Roblox, and that leap is too big for their developmental stage," he says. "They’re thrust into environments where they must interact with many adults, and the social safeguards simply aren’t sufficient. In competitive games they become easy prey for older players, and the risk of predatory behaviour rises dramatically." To address this gap, MacDonald 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 guided 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 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 space and give kids a safe stepping‑stone after preschool products," MacDonald explains. "Then they can graduate to platforms like Roblox when they’re ready." MacDonald is based in Kelowna, British Columbia—the same region where New Horizon Interactive originally created Club Penguin in the early 2000s before Disney acquired it in 2007.
He spent several years overseeing Club Penguin’s game design and production and recalls the extensive measures taken to protect young users. "Few people realized how many live moderators we employed—hundreds of staff whose sole job was to shield kids from harmful content and to work with law enforcement to expel predators as quickly as possible," he notes. The team also pioneered the Community Sift chat‑filter technology, later purchased by Microsoft in 2021, which was cutting‑edge for its era.
Beyond technology, the original game used subtle behavioural nudges. For example, if a player typed an edgy comment, the system would silently block the message while making it appear to others as if it had been delivered. This created a social feedback loop where inappropriate jokes fell flat, encouraging users to try something else that would be accepted.
MacDonald describes it as "social engineering" that helped shape a healthier community tone. The demise of Flash doomed Club Penguin, and MacDonald believes the mobile‑only pivot with Club Penguin Island was misguided. "There was pressure to go mobile because everyone thought kids were only on phones, but a huge portion of our audience still played on PCs because the game ran on virtually any device—even a toaster. That universal accessibility was part of the secret sauce," he says.
Since Club Penguin’s closure, Roblox has exploded—from 13.7 million daily active users in Q4 2018 to 144 million in Q4 2025, according to Statista. MacDonald acknowledges Roblox’s impressive growth but stresses that its origins were as a tool‑building platform, not a child‑centric service.
"Club Penguin was designed with kids in mind from day one; Roblox was not," he remarks. He also points out that the U.S.
Senate recently opened an investigation into Roblox, accusing the platform of prioritising revenue and engagement over child safety. 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 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 framework, and then began testing fun. In Imagine Island, players craft custom avatars, explore a vibrant island, engage in minigames, complete quests, and take part in community challenges.
The game reached over one million users within months of its beta launch in August, despite having spent virtually nothing on marketing. Like its predecessor, Imagine Island runs in a web browser through a partnership with CrazyGames, and the team plans IP collaborations and a major marketing push later this year. Safety remains the cornerstone. The studio employs the GGWP moderation suite alongside human reviewers and is exploring AI tools that can flag risky conversation patterns.
"My number‑one rule is: Are the kids safe? Everything else comes after that," MacDonald asserts. He likens the environment to an elementary‑school playground monitored by adults, ensuring that no bad actors slip through. While AI assistance is valuable, MacDonald believes human intuition still outperforms machines.
"AI isn’t close to matching a human’s gut feeling yet, but as we scale we’ll integrate it more," he says. The game also limits user‑generated content: players can arrange pre‑approved assets but cannot upload new ones, allowing the team to control the visual landscape while still offering creative freedom. When asked about the often‑cited "time‑to‑penis" issue—players inadvertently forming shapes that could be interpreted as inappropriate—MacDonald laughs, confirming that the team monitors such edge cases closely. He stresses that any content visible to a parent walking by should pass a "sniff test," ensuring that the experience remains wholesome.
MacDonald notes that the world has changed dramatically since Club Penguin’s heyday, especially after the COVID‑19 pandemic, which pushed many children into virtual spaces as essential social outlets. Yet he observes that the fundamental ways kids play have stayed consistent.
"Adopt Me on Roblox is basically the modern version of Club Penguin’s Puffle system," he observes. He is surprised that few games have attempted to fill Club Penguin’s niche, calling it a massive opportunity. "As a developer I feel a responsibility to deliver a positive message—a deposit in the world’s cultural bank rather than 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; drawing the child as a penguin left a lasting emotional impact on him, reinforcing his belief that video games can be profoundly meaningful. In short, Imagine Island aims to revive the safe, inclusive spirit of Club Penguin while leveraging modern technology and a clear safety framework, offering today’s children a protected digital playground before they move on to broader, less regulated platforms.