A former Disney senior manager who helped operate Club Penguin has launched Imagine Island, a browser-based virtual world for children aged 6 to 13, with backing from Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures and Konvoy Ventures. Stephen MacDonald, who ran Club Penguin game design and production for several years, founded Magic Potion Games in Kelowna, British Columbia, where the original Club Penguin was developed by New Horizon Interactive in the early 2000s before being sold to Disney in 2007. The project emerged from beta in August, and MacDonald says it crossed one million users before any paid marketing. The launch is intended to fill a gap for younger players who need age-appropriate online social spaces.

Club Penguin, the Disney-owned Flash-based MMO, operated from 2005 to 2017. MacDonald, who was a senior manager at Disney from 2012 to 2015, says the game had more than 300 million registered users at its peak. A mobile-focused follow-up, Club Penguin Island, closed in December 2018 around a year and a half after launch, following the retirement of Adobe Flash.

Background and market shift

MacDonald says the path for younger players has changed. In the past, children moved from preschool products to Club Penguin to learn online safety tools before graduating to titles such as Fortnite. He said many children now move directly from preschool content to Roblox, which he argues is not safe enough for that age group because of adult social interaction.

“What used to happen is a kid would go from a preschool product, like Peppa Pig, and then would go to Club Penguin to learn what it was to be safe online, learn all those tools, then they would graduate to Fortnite or something like that, ” MacDonald said. “Now you’ve got kids going from Peppa Pig to Roblox, and unfortunately, that is not safe enough for that age of kids. They are not ready for what’s in front of them and the social tools that they’re going to need to interact with a lot of adults.”

He added that in competitive games, younger children can be “chum in the water for older kids and young adults, ” and that socially they are vulnerable to predators.

Roblox has grown from 13.7 million daily active users in Q4 2018 to 144 million in Q4 2025, according to Statista. MacDonald says Roblox was originally launched as a tools platform, not as a children’s product, while Club Penguin was built with a child audience in mind. He acknowledged Roblox’s success in engaging audiences, but said platforms with children on them must take responsibility for child safety.

The United States Senate recently launched an investigation into Roblox, saying the platform appears to prioritise revenue and engagement metrics over child safety. Roblox began requiring users to verify their age before using chat features in January, and in 2025 it rolled out a “sensitive issues” content descriptor. In 2024, it introduced protections that prevented users under 13 from accessing direct messaging.

Safety and moderation approach

MacDonald says safety is the first priority for Imagine Island. The game uses the GGWP moderation tool alongside human oversight, and the studio is examining AI tools that can flag problematic conversation patterns.

“My number one rule is, are kids safe? That has to be the number one thing. Everything else comes after that, ” MacDonald said.

He described how Club Penguin used large teams of live moderators, worked with law enforcement to report predators, and developed technology that became Community Sift, a chat filter and moderation tool later acquired by Microsoft in 2021. The game also used subtle behavioural nudges, such as making it appear that an inappropriate message had not been received by other players.

Imagine Island features user-generated content but does not allow players to upload assets, which gives the studio control over what appears in the world. MacDonald said there are still ways for players to arrange assets in inappropriate configurations, and those spaces are moderated as well. The team applies what he calls an “over the shoulder test” to visible content.

Development and early traction

Imagine Island lets players create a custom avatar, explore a world, play minigames, complete quests and take part in community-driven challenges. It is playable in a browser through a partnership with web-game company CrazyGames. MacDonald said the game crossed one million users without spending real money on marketing.

Magic Potion Games has received guidance from industry veterans including Bungie founder Alex Seropian and Club Penguin co-founder Lane Merrifield. MacDonald, who left Electronic Arts in 2023 after his studio closed, said he raised a few million dollars to prototype Imagine Island with former Club Penguin colleagues Sascha Williams and Karin Johnson.

MacDonald said the next six months include IP activations and the game’s first marketing push. “This December is the moment I’m waiting for in a real big way, ” he said.