I recently found some emails I sent to the Club Penguin Team over 10 years ago about several ideas I had in mind -- and they responded! Consistently! They seemed to have been genuinely excited that I was so excited and passionate about the game even at such an early age. Club Penguin was an absolute gem with tremendous potential and the culture of kindness and creativity ended up manifesting I also still believe was quite profound and impacted me positively well into my teen and early adult years. Really hope to hear tons more from you, Chris! Thanks for everything :)
yeah, i was a pretty lonely child (sorry if that's depressing LOL i'm doing wonderful now) and getting emails back consistently that were kind and helpful was good for me. club penguin in general was a nice opportunity for me to make friends and prove to myself that i could be charismatic and likeable, which helped me irl as well.
I’ve BEEN saying this about club penguin positively impacting my development. that game and its community was legit like an auntie to me, raised me fr. love club penguin and all its cppss to this day
I had a pretty bad childhood. Club Penguin’s kindness culture helped me so much growing up. It taught me the value of being kind to others, even if my parents didn’t model that for me.
i really hope more former developers come out with more behind the scenes content. im dying to see some design documents and concepts that never saw the light of day
I've known how to play mancala since I was 5, and I remember winning almost every game of mancala on club penguin because I was one of the only people on there who really understood how to play it
I was an early reader, so took the time to read the how-to-play page again after a while of still not understanding the game, and it finally clicked and I developed strategies that came back pretty quickly in 51 Worldwide Games (known in the US as Clubhouse Games)
Same here - as in, winning almost every game bc I understood the rules. I guess we were the minority hahah. Never had a problem with mancala, I thought the instructions on the back of the wall were pretty clear actually 🫢 This was my go-to “chill” cp mini-game when I didn’t want to play the more intense ones like cartsurfer or bean counter. So I’d wait at a table, hoping someone would come and play… I’d get super excited when someone joined, even more so if they could actually beat me 🥲
Yeah I don't remember being the best at Mancala haha I think I gradually got it but for me, the connect 4 on bin weevils was my domain. My mum taught me tricks of how to play and I always won and still do haha
3:29 Puffle bowling was a lot closer to happening then you thought. On the club penguin "beta team" website that was active during like 2011-13 there was a bunch of concept minigames there (even Card Jitsu Snow had a public beta here) and Puffle Bowling was actually one of them! You can find it on the wiki - it's not exactly the same as your vision but the concept definitely lived on it seems.
I actually wouldn't have liked a color picker. The restriction was fun and made me make more creative choices about my penguin. That being said, more colors, and more color parties, would've been awesome. The lime green party was so special. The scavenger hunt idea also sounds so amazing!
18:44 Even after hearing you talk about a puffle bowling minigame, only at this point of the video did I remember that I actually played real life puffle bowling with my friends once. I had puffles and a set of 5 or 6 pins with Superman drawings on them and it was a bunch of fun
One of my fondest memories on Club Penguin was during the Fall Fair in 2010. I pretended to be a tour guide and took groups to see Rockhopper's Island which was just going onto the Migrator and back off and claiming that we were now on Rockhopper Island. (Just ignore the fact that it looks suspiciously like Club Penguin I would say)
Chris Thank you for these amazing 19 years of club penguin Saying that 19 years just wow seriously jeez Anyway thank you for everything And I joined club penguin 2006 pizza parlor opening
your club penguin dev lore videos are always so comfortable and chill to watch, makes my anxiety drop to zero maybe because of remembering the club penguin days
The right moment you mentioned a Mancala tutorial I screamed that YES. A TUTORIAL WOULD HAVE BEEN A NICE ADDITION because younger me (and older me right now at 21 years old) didn't understand how that game worked
Mancala was one of my favourite games in Club Penguin. It had a sort of 'earthiness' and 'history' to it that Connect Four (or- oops, sorry, 'Find Four') and Card Jitsu didn't have (not to knock them; still played plenty of those and earned tens of thousands of coins from them.) Made me feel like a classy penguin. I still play mancala sometimes to this day, and I have Club Penguin to thank for that. In fact, if someone my age knows what mancala is, I tend to guess (correctly) that they played Club Penguin too. This reminds me of one thing I always wanted when I was a kid: certain games in igloos! I know that Card Jitsu was accessible in igloos via the Dojo Mat, as was Puffle Launch via the Puffle Cannon, (as well as Dino Dig I think) but I believe those were the only ones (do correct me if I'm wrong.) Either way, I'm certain that simpler games like mancala and Connect/Find Four were never accessible from igloos: which is a shame, as those are sort of the most logical to have in an igloo! There were only like, 4 Find Four and Mancala sets available at any one time on any server, and while admittedly mancala was usually pretty easy to get a reserved spot for, it wasn't too uncommon for Find Four to be totally full. Also, I really liked some of the party-exclusive minigames, like that one in Rockhopper's ship - I would've loved to bring that into my igloo. (Unless I'm forgetting that this feature was indeed a thing; it's been a while after all.) It would've fulfilled a perfect niche of making igloos cool and exclusive if you could get the minigames as a reward during parties while also letting minigames last longer than their shelf life. (Though I guess it could've reduced the uniqueness of parties.)
I endeed learned about mancala from Club Penguin 😅 and any time I see one somewhere it's hard to resist to not buy one. But one day I definitely will and make my friends learn how to play. It's so simple and fun
I’d like to thank you for being the reason 3 year old me could spell Penguin before my own last name! Thanks for being such a crucial part of my childhood Chris :)
same as you I always wished there was a 'downloadable version' of sorts, on top of accessibility/preservation purposes it would have been insanely cool to visit older backups of the game any time you wanted, so if anyone wanted to experience what it was like in 2005 or maybe just missed a party and wanted to check out the decorations & games they could, great video by the way!! also, I really could've used that Mancala training...
Space Station! :0 Technically, we had a futuristic "Space Station" during the Future Party in 2014 as well being in Space. I thought, Sparklers were in the Game... But that was a Deja Vu! One of my most wanted Feature to be added: Gifting coins to other player. Like Player 1 sends 100 Coins, but Player 2 has to accept or deny it. I mean, that would save Hours to grind in Cart Surfer... xD
I love the idea of a space station being in Club Penguin! Your concept for it honestly reminds me a lot of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. With Club Penguin eventually becoming a Disney property and all, I would have thought they would bring Star Command to the game in a similar vein! Although, I do think the show was a bit obscure at that point. But I still would have loved to see a sort of crossover like that between my two main interests! At least we did get the Buzz costume in Club Penguin Island. Side note: my dad loves your videos. He isn't the biggest Club Penguin fan on the planet (or at least he tries to give off that idea; i think he's fond of it a little bit more than he lets on) but loves the way you explain things and tell your stories and the humor involved in your videos. Haven't told him you've uploaded yet but I couldn't pass up the chance to let you know he's a fan!
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was a very underrated show! (Even by Disney it seems... they still haven't added it to Disney Plus). I wish Pixar's Lightyear had gone more in that direction than the "realistic" movie that we got. Oh well. And say hi to your dad for me!
@ChrisHendricks It sure is! Maybe with Toy Story 5 on the horizon, there's a chance it will be added to the service. With what we know so far, maybe it's not too far off, since it was mentioned the gang will be fighting against an army of recalled Buzz Lightyears - I had the thought that the rest of Buzz's crew would be prototype toys that were never released (even if they were released in the real world, I have quite a bit of XR merch). But that's my theory! I sure will! I plan to watch this video with him either later tonight or tomorrow, so I'll let him know!
@@ChrisHendricks I love the idea of the downloadabke game. I would be amazing to have all the minigames downloadable and making it possible to be played any time the player wants. I also wanted to ask if you plan to make a Club Penguin music related video about thin ice. I'm a huge CP fan and a huge fan of your songs for the game for such a long time now. Thanks for everything you did for the game. I hope you see this message. Kindest regards from Brazil.
6:40 Really liked the scavenger hunts idea, specially the use of the igloo to start it. I always thought that igloos were kinda dull as the only thing possible to do there was socialize or decorate it. Furnitures that would “do stuff” like more multiplayer minigames or even itens that could be changed by others (like a bulletin board where other players could decorate with pins or postcards) would be a nice addition
10:10 I actually think the mutual friending is much more suitable for games geared towards children. much better to have both players agree to be friends rather than some person trying to follow everyone in the pizza parlor
I remember one of the PSA missions had a scene where a Puffle bowled over a small set of pins. Maybe that was a small remnant of the original Puffle Bowling idea?
i am LIVING for your club penguin BTS!!! it’s where i lived the majority of my life aged 8-12!!! my friend and i would fight over who got to date the cute boy penguins and we loved throwing elaborate igloo parties 😂😂
Chris -- one thing I've always been fascinated with over the years of Club Penguin is the way people used to cheat. Whether that was coin generation hacks, item givers (I think those were a thing), or hacks to change your igloo to have ANY song that was in the game. Other hacks like wall walking or 'moon walking' too. I've seen it a lot over the years. Do you know about these and how they worked? Why was it so easy for cheaters to do these things? What measures were taken to prevent or try to catch players who were cheating? I know it's all very technical and may not have much to do with your art/music/creativity side. Thanks for the new great video! Makes me miss it.
Most hacks were done by intercepting and manipulating packets with a sniffer like WPE Pro. For example, you would capture the packet sent when you change your igloo music to a specific song (e.g., ID 31). Then, you could modify this packet to change the music ID to something else (e.g., ID 120) and resend the edited packet to the server. The server would then accept the modified packet and change the music. This was possible because the traffic wasn't really encrypted and the server often performed minimal validation on what players were requesting. For moon walking you'd capture the sitting action for example and just edit the packet's animation frame to one of the walking frames, then you'd walk in place. It was all very simple.
Can confirm that item givers were a thing. I don't think all items worked, but it was possible to give yourself some things. How do I know this? Don't worry about it.
That scavenger hunt idea would've be so fun because i remember playing countless rounds of hide and find with my friends on the servers and saw plenty other people playing it too, so a scavenger hunt mode would've been a hit especially since small trinkets or pins wouldve been harder to find instead of our penguins
Can I just say a huge thank you to you Chris. You were part of a team that made my childhood online experience so much fun. I played from 2007 - 2010 and I loved every second. Your music still goes around my head sometimes. I’m 28 now and still have lots of fond memories of Club Penguin. Thank you again 😊
I think it’s interesting you mention being able to play offline because we did eventually get that with Club Penguin Island when that was shutting down
Honestly, I would download and actively play the game over and over. It would be cool for nostalgia, a private server with friends etc, everything being level or igc locked or even dlc locked.
If Space Aqua Grabber was announced, I would have lost my MIND. My favorite minigame plus SPACE?! So cool. Custom Scavenger Hunts would have been *amazing*, especially if you get to place pins. One of my favorite parts of Club Penguin was roleplaying, like at the Pizza Parlor. I could totally see myself and others using custom scavenger hunts to create their own little PSA missions, for example. Pool and Puffle Bowling both sounds super fun too. Color Parties were fun! It was always disappointing to have my color not win and to never be able to choose it was pretty disappointing, though. Ooh, sparklers sparking while waving sounds delightful. Downloadable for preservation would have definitely been wonderful. I'm in the same boat about Rockhopper Island (pun not intended 😆). That's a hilarious idea that Rockhopper is just horrible at directions. Relatedly, my number 1 wish would have been for the "Help Herbert Home" movement many players were rallying for to become a reality sometime after Operation Blackout, with Rockhopper helping Herbert find a warmer island to live on.
The one thing I always wanted on Club Penguin was a time machine that let you go back to old parties so I could either relive some of my favorites or check out some of the ones I missed.
Another special day, another special upload for the anniversary. Loving your content! I like how you want to implement puffle bowling. Bowling is one of my favorite sports! It would be neat to see more interactive games like the pool ball. There's plenty enough like the Sled Racing and Mancala. But, I'd love to see more casual games, like Chess/Checkers. A slice of life in a penguin game!
Idk if you're aware but Club Penguin Island did what you wanted the og Club Penguin to do (offline play) if you're able to find a copy online or you redownload it on your phone the game now operates in offline mode and it lets you play and do everything, including things that used to be members only. It even has a debug mode which lets you mess around with the world like giving yourself infinite currency, triggering specific events, and even a way to host private servers to bring the game back online if you know what you're doing bonus points: it even has all of the classic Club Penguin minigames (tho some are updated with the game's later artstyle)
It's almost ironic that I watched the 5 things you didn't want video (and a ton of others) literally yesterday. I grew up with Club Penguin from pretty early on. Actually lived in Kelowna til I was eleven and found out about the game from a classmate who said their dad was a staff member. So this game means... quite a bit to me and I consider it a huge part of the culture among the kids in my hometown. As well as a huge part of my life (it still is honestly) that helped me get through a very hard move and childhood. Getting to see a bunch of behind the scenes and hearing you talk about stuff here- as well hearing interviews and stuff from other videos and video essays- has been a real treat. Thank you so much for making these videos and giving us looks into how a big chunk of our childhoods were made. Honestly makes me feel like I'm home again and I'm sure it's like that for many others too. Seriously, thank you so much.
it is SO gratifying to hear that the sensei always beat you in card jitsu from one of the big names of club penguin. it’s like a part of my childhood has finally gotten resolved lol
I love hearing about the development of games, movies, and so on, but this brings me back to a really special place in my mind. For me, the most memorable moment of playing Club Penguin was Christmas 2012. Donating all my coins to “Coins for Change” and listening to the beautiful music made that time unforgettable. Thanks for sharing this piece of my childhood.
Chris, your insight on the game is invaluable. I hope you can always see how much impact and relevance the game still has to this day and feel proud of what you helped build. I'd love for you to one day host a live stream where fans can ask some questions about what you're currently working on, working behind the scenes at Club Penguin, your music composition, and art direction - if you were ever comfortable. I feel like there are endless stories and content living in your brain that I could probably listen for hours while it gets picked at. Btw - I have had an orange penguin in a blue lei as my profile picture on various socials for almost three yrs now and it has become a staple of my online presence (I'm assuming you drew it because I believe its some art circa 2006, I'd love to know though haha) Thank you again always for these amazing videos! ❤️
Thank you so much! Helping to build Club Penguin was indeed a huge achievement that I'm very thankful for... it's the gift that keeps on giving with fan comments like this. :) I've done occasional livestreams, but it's been awhile... I should probably do another one again soon. (And yes, that orange penguin is indeed one of my early drawings. likely for the Hawaiian party.)
Great video!! This is a bit of an odd question, but i remember when i was 8-9, towards the end of when i played club penguin, i used those 3rd party "hacking" programs such as Penguin Storm. I remember gettkng banned once for what was called "bait items", like the skateboard. Id be super interested in hearing the staffs thoughts and struggles behind the acenes about dealing w/ these programs, as well as what the story was behind these "bait items".
What do I wish was added? Pretty much everything that was shown back in 2011 on the (not so)-secret "beta team" website. It had a bunch of playable minigame concepts, including a 2d version of Puffle Bowling, and a game called "Fluffy the Fish" which was honestly one of my favourite Club Penguin minigames ever, even if it never was added to the actual game. Ice Jam was cool too, even though we technically did get that one in several parties, I much preferred the art of the test version. Outside of that, I would have liked to see that much promised "Server Jumping" feature. Or the Loft Igloo that was in the game files back in 2010, but removed after it was discovered, only appearing again in 2012 in a promotional video. I think that would have been my favourite igloo.
For number 10, I love having the missions on the ds, and the mini games! It’s so much less stressful than joining a private server or downloading a random link. I love being able to still play the legitimate game that way even if it’s only a small part Maybe a bit niche, but I wish the safe chat settings could have been changed! I joined as a young kid so my parents put safe chat on, and it was a bit embarrassing to my early teen self that I couldn’t change it to free chat haha
i remember my friend who was older than me giving me her club penguin acc i think right before the stage came around! ever since then i practically played until the end party… its been a huge part of my life! the little comic books id buy at book fair, begging my grandma to get the figures and puffle plushies. these videos really bring me a lot of comfort and nostalgia, especially now being 20, almost 21 and old enough to be interested in the development and behind the scenes! i hope youre able to continue these videos ❤
its amazing how your personality and just everything about you makes total sense for you to had been part of the most glorious online flash game ever to exist!
In Beta Team there was a Puffle Bowling game but it used to scare me as a kid because the penguin grabbed the scared puffle by the top of the fur and then threw it, and when the puffle lost it would explode like a water balloon 😵💫
I learned the rules of Mancala even before Club Penguin. Back in the early 2000s my mom had a Nokia 3310 and it came with a similar game called Bantumi. :)
I remember leaving the family computer on overnight with my penguin on the Migrator the day it was supposed to leave, hoping that the next day I would wake up and be on Rockhopper Island
Hi, just to say, Club Penguin is still a huge fountain of inspiration for me, from the art style and the theme parties to the games and the music! Thank you and all who worked in this amazing game for working really hard in thinking ideas to get in the game for us to enjoy in our younger years ❤ That's dedication right there!
So the Puffle Bowling idea had my mind racing, here's my idea for how that functions: At the end of the lane are 8-15 or so pins in varying layouts, not just the standard triangle, they can form all kinds of weird shapes. Your goal is to knock them down. At the bottom of the screen, where your Penguin is bowling from, there's a ball return with 3 random differently colored puffles. You can pick any one of them to bowl with, and each color has a special ability (one can knock down both pins in a split, one is good at getting straight lines of pins, one (taking from the drawing you showed, the green puffle) can float over gutters, etc.). Once you use a puffle to bowl with, a new differently colored puffle (and thus a new ability) gets added to the ball return. On top of using the puffle abilities, there is an aiming mechanic. I figure something similar to Wii sports for moving left or right to aim down the lane, and then using a simple timing minigame for the release (how good you do at timing determines your aim accuracy). Essentially, each frame is using the best available puffle to knock down as many pins as possible, taking advantage of the different puffle abilities to do so. It's less about getting strikes (which would actually be very difficult given the varying pin layouts) and more about getting good shots (if you knock down four or more pins with a single puffle, you get a score bonus). Frames actually don't end until you knock down all the pins. I imagine the game being played in sets of three frames, so on average about ten throws of a puffle per session. I think three keeps the game from feeling too short without dragging on. On a different note, I think the player made scavenger hunts could have been an interesting form of pin redistribution. Players could earn pins they may have missed previously by playing a scavenger hunt run by someone who has it. There are probably some drawbacks to that system (it makes pins less intrinsically special to find, scavenger hunt "spam") but it could have been convenient for people who couldn't always find them. Some potential safeguards are A. Having a waiting period before a pin is eligible for a scavenger hunt so people have more reason to look around when the pin is newly released, and B. Making certain pins (pins that weren't just randomly hidden around, for example the Ruby pin from the stage or the Rockhopper's key pin) ineligible for scavenger hunts to keep them more special.
Having club penguin be downloadable for preservation purposes wouldve been so nice. I'd love to just like HAVE it on my computer and be able to boot it up whenever and play offline after the servers have shut down. I know CPPS's exist but having the whole original game with my old account would be incredible :')
for what it's worth, the color parties really felt like you were changing the game and setting it up. it was also super fun to get to flaunt the new color and try and match as many clothes with it. and since there were so few it really felt like not only a big deal, but you /had/ to be there unlike the theme parties that would come back around. thanks again for all you did
Always love hearing about the development of games that I played back when I was a kid. A mancala tutorial would've been super nice to have since I never knew how to play. Heck, I'm 22 now and I still have no idea how to play haha!
I can't believe I just found your channel 😄😄😄; it's exactly the content I didn't know I needed, Club Penguin was a huge part of my childhood, a safe place where I could be whoever I wanted and connect with friends from everywhere. Sometimes I didn’t have internet at home, or the computer just wouldn’t work, but I’d always find a way to play. I’d go to a cybercafé or a friend’s house - whatever it took to make sure I didn’t miss anything happening in the game. Every event was a new excitement for me as a child, and I have such as lovely memories like receiving my first membership as a birthday surprise gift or the plush puffles my dad gave to me Club Penguin was my first step into creativity and the audiovisual world. Thanks to the game, I discovered my passion, and now I’m studying this field; I used to make those music videos where my penguin would "sing" the lyrics and even had a blog to post game updates and write my own stories inspired by that world. I made friends I still remember fondly, people who shared my excitement for such a special place. It meant so much to me that, years later, I got a penguin tattoo. The game was my childhood, and seeing someone keep that nostalgia alive makes me incredibly happy. Club Penguin was magical, and everyone who experienced it knows it had something unique. 🐧❤ Thank you for creating this content and bringing back such a beautiful part of my life (Sorry if my English isn’t perfect!)
That last statement where you mention about preserving the games in downloadable form is so on point. In an age where we see ancient media and history fading away quicker than expected, especially with websites (i.e. internet archive) hosting such media getting massacred by the cruel copyright laws of the world, it's never been a much better time to discover, collect & archive as much club penguin media as possible. Everything that you've been doing on your channel has been a blessing to history enthusiasts and archeologists alike, even for a game about penguins. Here's to hoping you'll continue sharing your past experiences when working on Club Penguin or anything else you've worked on for years to come, Hendricks! Until then, waddle on!
Something similar to the custom scavenger hunts was in the ill-fated Club Penguin Island. It was one of a few portable games other penguins could join after one started it, one person would hide a few marbles in the current room, then a timer would start for the other players to find them all.
This was a super cool video, I never realized how much I wanted a Club Penguin space station. But the one item that really stood out to me was Puffle bowling because of how familiar it was. After thinking about it, there was a form of Puffle bowling: a toy set. One of the Club Penguin toys I had was a red Puffle house that unfolded into a tiny bowling lane that you could launch a red Puffle at a set of pins. It’s interesting to see how many of these ideas become real even in small ways.
Nice vid! There were some space station related stuff with the Future Party 2014, but it was only for one party (also ig the alien ship on operation crustacean), I did always find it interesting how they honestly went in a super different direction that you would expect for those. Also funny enough the Club Penguin Island offline mode was basically the concept you mentioned, tbh still hope someone makes an offline version of the game that isn't a pain to setup. Also tbh thinking bout stuff I would've liked to see it would mainly be a lot of quality of life stuff, like outfit reserve slots, teleport to friends or something like that, music player on the main site or something, as well as a proper credits in the site somewhere! Always weird how none of the Club Penguin team was really credited anywhere, even in stuff like the DS and Wii games where it's just mentioned as “The Club Penguin Team”, I wonder why that's the case looking back ngl.
This is such a cool video! I don't know if you'll see this but I've been watching you since I was in middle school and I'm about to graduate high school 😅 your videos always bring a smile to my face, club penguin related or not.
The space station idea reminds me of a pretty obscure CPPS called Space Penguin. The island was hovering above earth and it had a pretty eerie vibe but it was cool for what it was
Since I’m early, I want to thank you for being such an awesome part of my childhood. Its invaluable and cant be put into words what those experiences mean to me.
It's so nice to learn something new about Club Penguin even though the game is 19 years old, I'd love to see more videos of behind the scenes of Club Penguin!
Cannot overstate how much I appreciate and love your Club Penguin videos, Chris! It’s so fun to learn more about this game and its history and hear your anecdotes from behind the scenes. You’re the best! Thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do for this community of people who still deeply love Club Penguin! 💙
13:05 I agree!!! One of my favorite things about Club Penguin were the mysteries. It allowed my imagination to run wild and daydream with me and my friends about what could be in the works. I also just loved seeing all the fan-created stuff online about ninjas, the iceberg tipping, upcoming Card Jitsu stuff, Rockhopper Island, the penguin statue in the mines, and rainbow puffles (even if a lot of these eventually became a reality). The theories that people came up with were so fun and it was so cool to see what other peoples imaginations came up with and they often kickstarted your own. It’s the same feeling you get when someone tells an old legend around a campfire. The excitement and thrill of the unknown is sometimes even greater than the reality :) thanks for making Club Penguin magical!
Chris, it's great to find your channel. I have so many fond memories of Club Penguin! I got to come on a quick tour of the office in Kelowna in 2007 aged 9 and it was such a cool and memorable experience for me 😊 I'll never forget one of the staff members telling me I was better than her at cart surfer, I felt like such a pro!
That last point would've been a dream come true. I used to record a bunch of series playing as different characters in whatever party environment was around, and i always went to the emptiest servers for that. That along game preservation and being able to play whenever would've been so good. Also love the idea of the sparkler! I def would've used it to pretend it being dragon fire while using the dragon costumes. Tho it's not far fetched kids would use even a microphone item to pretend it's dynamite lol.
I've said it before but thank you so much for making these videos, there's so much insight on how the game was made that I was always curious about as a kid
I love these kinds of videos! I agree on everything you said with maybe one exception. I'm personally glad the friendship system worked the way it did. It would've made me kinda paranoid to know that anyone could "follow" me without my permission at any time. There were times I just wanted to be left alone, but also just having the option to choose/accept people you felt like you could trust was nice, and made you feel a lot more "private" than what what the social media that came after was like. I couldn't agree more on Rockhopper's island. As a kid, I SO wanted it to become a reality, but I understand now that the reason it was so talked about was because it was unknown, just like how people made countless of spooky speculation videos about the ninjas before 2008. Everyone had their own images of what Rockhopper's island was like and that made it COOL. Me as a kid would never have admitted this but now I kinda feel like it's for the best that it stayed an unsolved mystery. And wow, having your own penguin color would've been awesome! Why didn't anyone think of that? I sure didn't when I was a kid. I kept the same yellow color from the moment I started to the end 10 years later and never switched. It would've been really fun to have your "own" unique color that no one else knew the color code to! Having a downloadable game huh... That would've been incredible :( I would wander around it to constantly today like an old man visiting his abandoned childhood town, LOL. I can just picture millions of adults wandering around in silence, and playing guitar by themselves in the otherwise quiet lighthouse... that feels weird to think about.
13:46 If I remember correctly, this joke was actually sort of used in a comic in one issue of the Club Penguin Magazine. It followed the characters from Quest for the Golden Puffle sailing off the island and supposedly getting stranded on a deserted island before the big reveal at the end that they washed up back on Club Penguin after the decorations for the summer party went up. Maybe it was a reference to Lance's idea? A funny coincidence either way!
Happy 19th anniversary! Moving this up to the front, what I would add just at first thought from a childhood memory would be maybe something else to do if you were playing locally with someone else in the same place in real life, because it didn't really add much to the experience. I would also probably add an enemy range indicator to card jitsu snow because I liked the idea of it and it got me into FE in a way, but looking back it was basically just radiant dawn hard mode. 2:44 I felt this concept was pretty familiar, the red puffle uses a bowling pin and apparently there was a prototype game of it. 5:47 This would be interesting to add more interaction to the world and another reason to look around rooms than just hanging out, with how many rooms ended up being added. I was a pretty big scavenger hunt fan though mostly I just followed guides but I remember making my own video of the Card Jitsu Fire one once. 7:53 Looking back I'm not sure how I managed to just add random people as buddies and keep talking to them on later days but somehow it worked. Having a follower system might have been interesting, I remember when roblox changed to that as well. It's hard to say what following someone would really add as a function and the big celebrities like watex probably would have made a big deal about follow counts. 10:25 I did like figuring out how to steal and get free turns. I don't think I figured out any high level strategy by that point but it still felt like satisfying tech. 12:04 Leaving answers open to canon is nice for the fans too, and you never need to write yourself into a corner like the pineapple incident. I read a fan theory about that joke a few years ago and that seemed very plausible with the puffles already existing on the island. 14:08 On one hand this would have been nice QOL, on the other hand limiting options is nice as well to value them more and I ended up liking yellow and purple more as colours because of club penguin incidentally. The spectacle/controversy of Mimo777 rigging the polls for aqua to win was quite memorable as well. 16:58 This would have been nice. I remember coming back to the game in later years and the performance was pretty harsh, I never got to play card jitsu water properly because it always lagged too much.
Card Jitsu Snow was Fire Emblem... I never would have made this connection before, but you're correct. It even has the weapon triangle. I feel like I've stumbled upon an oracle. This is like a theophany.
Nice and VERY interesting video, Chris as always, everytime you upload a video it makes really exited to know more of the consept that i didn't know of my favourite childhood game. I've been wondering if you could tell us something about the charaters, they always been my favourite part of Club Penguin, specially the EPF members, and sadly people didn't see to talk about them that much (at least of what i can remember, i was a kid at the time). Also Happy Club Penguin's 19th anyversary, and thank you for the video in such an important day for everyone!!
Man, it's so cool watching someone talk about Club Penguin behind the scenes as someone who played the game obsessively as a kid ! Thanks for the awesome video :) 👍
Happy anniversary to Club Penguin! Wild to think we're so close to the 20th anniversary lol. Fantastic video as usual, it was really interesting hearing these ideas, most of them are super great. But my favorites probably are making more color options and having the game available for download.
i always love hearing about the behind-the-scenes on club penguin. it's a bit cliche to say a game "was your childhood" but a large portion of my early childhood free time genuinely was taken up playing club penguin, and hearing about it always makes me reminisce about those times. i wish i could have played more of it over the years while it was still around. the PSA missions will always be my favorite part. waddle on, friends, waddle on.
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More Club Penguin development lore??? Yes please!!
no matter how old i get, ill always love learning more about club penguin :)
I know!!! No matter how old I am, I turn into the same excited nine year old kid when I watch these videos
I recently found some emails I sent to the Club Penguin Team over 10 years ago about several ideas I had in mind -- and they responded! Consistently! They seemed to have been genuinely excited that I was so excited and passionate about the game even at such an early age. Club Penguin was an absolute gem with tremendous potential and the culture of kindness and creativity ended up manifesting I also still believe was quite profound and impacted me positively well into my teen and early adult years. Really hope to hear tons more from you, Chris! Thanks for everything :)
yeah, i was a pretty lonely child (sorry if that's depressing LOL i'm doing wonderful now) and getting emails back consistently that were kind and helpful was good for me. club penguin in general was a nice opportunity for me to make friends and prove to myself that i could be charismatic and likeable, which helped me irl as well.
Now i wanna know what ideas did you sent them 😷
I’ve BEEN saying this about club penguin positively impacting my development. that game and its community was legit like an auntie to me, raised me fr. love club penguin and all its cppss to this day
I had a pretty bad childhood. Club Penguin’s kindness culture helped me so much growing up. It taught me the value of being kind to others, even if my parents didn’t model that for me.
@xTwilightWolvesx sorry to hear that about that, I hope things are better for you these days, fellow penguin friend! :)
i really hope more former developers come out with more behind the scenes content. im dying to see some design documents and concepts that never saw the light of day
Yeah, I'd really like to hear about the background arts for example
Artbook please! Hahah
Chris Gliddon (polofield) did some videos a few years back as well th-cam.com/play/PLiBQLU0k_nX_N1WBxJBjVhiI7nGmqLBjO.html
I've known how to play mancala since I was 5, and I remember winning almost every game of mancala on club penguin because I was one of the only people on there who really understood how to play it
I was an early reader, so took the time to read the how-to-play page again after a while of still not understanding the game, and it finally clicked and I developed strategies that came back pretty quickly in 51 Worldwide Games (known in the US as Clubhouse Games)
Same here - as in, winning almost every game bc I understood the rules. I guess we were the minority hahah. Never had a problem with mancala, I thought the instructions on the back of the wall were pretty clear actually 🫢
This was my go-to “chill” cp mini-game when I didn’t want to play the more intense ones like cartsurfer or bean counter. So I’d wait at a table, hoping someone would come and play… I’d get super excited when someone joined, even more so if they could actually beat me 🥲
The decisions that some uninformed players made were wild 😆
Yeah I don't remember being the best at Mancala haha I think I gradually got it but for me, the connect 4 on bin weevils was my domain. My mum taught me tricks of how to play and I always won and still do haha
so it was YOU
3:29 Puffle bowling was a lot closer to happening then you thought. On the club penguin "beta team" website that was active during like 2011-13 there was a bunch of concept minigames there (even Card Jitsu Snow had a public beta here) and Puffle Bowling was actually one of them! You can find it on the wiki - it's not exactly the same as your vision but the concept definitely lived on it seems.
I hope he address the beta website in the future. That website honestly felt like a fever dream
@@zacharysanvicente2276 He won't because it was made after he left Disney Online Studios in 2010
I actually wouldn't have liked a color picker. The restriction was fun and made me make more creative choices about my penguin. That being said, more colors, and more color parties, would've been awesome. The lime green party was so special.
The scavenger hunt idea also sounds so amazing!
Maybe a few more colours would've been nice but it was always cool seeing someone who had picked the same colour you liked.
The restrictive color system added more personality to the color itself
@@lucastoft4948 It also meant you would see other colours in the catalogues and be like, hey, maybe I should try out that colour for a little while!
18:44 Even after hearing you talk about a puffle bowling minigame, only at this point of the video did I remember that I actually played real life puffle bowling with my friends once. I had puffles and a set of 5 or 6 pins with Superman drawings on them and it was a bunch of fun
I actually think it was one of the activities they recommended on the club penguin arts and crafts section of the site!
@@BorfieKaiyeah
One of my fondest memories on Club Penguin was during the Fall Fair in 2010. I pretended to be a tour guide and took groups to see Rockhopper's Island which was just going onto the Migrator and back off and claiming that we were now on Rockhopper Island. (Just ignore the fact that it looks suspiciously like Club Penguin I would say)
I think I took your tour!! 😆
@@madisonh1703omg
Wait why do I remember this 😭 I must have gone on your tour too lol
i got a puffle tattoo when i turned 18 i love club penguin so much i don’t know who i would be without club penguin existing back then
me too i have a jackolatern puffle !!!
@@nicollea9020 that’s so cute 😭😭😭
Chris
Thank you for these amazing 19 years of club penguin
Saying that 19 years just wow seriously jeez
Anyway thank you for everything
And I joined club penguin 2006 pizza parlor opening
18:11 i love how perfect the timing on that background clip was
LOL
your club penguin dev lore videos are always so comfortable and chill to watch, makes my anxiety drop to zero maybe because of remembering the club penguin days
The right moment you mentioned a Mancala tutorial I screamed that YES. A TUTORIAL WOULD HAVE BEEN A NICE ADDITION because younger me (and older me right now at 21 years old) didn't understand how that game worked
Playing pool in club penguin would be such a vibe
I fear I would have never logged off
Mancala was one of my favourite games in Club Penguin. It had a sort of 'earthiness' and 'history' to it that Connect Four (or- oops, sorry, 'Find Four') and Card Jitsu didn't have (not to knock them; still played plenty of those and earned tens of thousands of coins from them.) Made me feel like a classy penguin. I still play mancala sometimes to this day, and I have Club Penguin to thank for that. In fact, if someone my age knows what mancala is, I tend to guess (correctly) that they played Club Penguin too.
This reminds me of one thing I always wanted when I was a kid: certain games in igloos!
I know that Card Jitsu was accessible in igloos via the Dojo Mat, as was Puffle Launch via the Puffle Cannon, (as well as Dino Dig I think) but I believe those were the only ones (do correct me if I'm wrong.) Either way, I'm certain that simpler games like mancala and Connect/Find Four were never accessible from igloos: which is a shame, as those are sort of the most logical to have in an igloo! There were only like, 4 Find Four and Mancala sets available at any one time on any server, and while admittedly mancala was usually pretty easy to get a reserved spot for, it wasn't too uncommon for Find Four to be totally full.
Also, I really liked some of the party-exclusive minigames, like that one in Rockhopper's ship - I would've loved to bring that into my igloo. (Unless I'm forgetting that this feature was indeed a thing; it's been a while after all.) It would've fulfilled a perfect niche of making igloos cool and exclusive if you could get the minigames as a reward during parties while also letting minigames last longer than their shelf life. (Though I guess it could've reduced the uniqueness of parties.)
I endeed learned about mancala from Club Penguin 😅 and any time I see one somewhere it's hard to resist to not buy one. But one day I definitely will and make my friends learn how to play. It's so simple and fun
I’d like to thank you for being the reason 3 year old me could spell Penguin before my own last name! Thanks for being such a crucial part of my childhood Chris :)
same as you I always wished there was a 'downloadable version' of sorts, on top of accessibility/preservation purposes it would have been insanely cool to visit older backups of the game any time you wanted, so if anyone wanted to experience what it was like in 2005 or maybe just missed a party and wanted to check out the decorations & games they could, great video by the way!!
also, I really could've used that Mancala training...
Space Station! :0
Technically, we had a futuristic "Space Station" during the Future Party in 2014 as well being in Space.
I thought, Sparklers were in the Game... But that was a Deja Vu!
One of my most wanted Feature to be added: Gifting coins to other player. Like Player 1 sends 100 Coins, but Player 2 has to accept or deny it. I mean, that would save Hours to grind in Cart Surfer... xD
gifting coins sounds neat but also feels like it would have introduced a new generation to runescape scams xd
I love the idea of a space station being in Club Penguin! Your concept for it honestly reminds me a lot of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. With Club Penguin eventually becoming a Disney property and all, I would have thought they would bring Star Command to the game in a similar vein! Although, I do think the show was a bit obscure at that point. But I still would have loved to see a sort of crossover like that between my two main interests! At least we did get the Buzz costume in Club Penguin Island.
Side note: my dad loves your videos. He isn't the biggest Club Penguin fan on the planet (or at least he tries to give off that idea; i think he's fond of it a little bit more than he lets on) but loves the way you explain things and tell your stories and the humor involved in your videos. Haven't told him you've uploaded yet but I couldn't pass up the chance to let you know he's a fan!
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was a very underrated show! (Even by Disney it seems... they still haven't added it to Disney Plus). I wish Pixar's Lightyear had gone more in that direction than the "realistic" movie that we got. Oh well.
And say hi to your dad for me!
@ChrisHendricks It sure is! Maybe with Toy Story 5 on the horizon, there's a chance it will be added to the service. With what we know so far, maybe it's not too far off, since it was mentioned the gang will be fighting against an army of recalled Buzz Lightyears - I had the thought that the rest of Buzz's crew would be prototype toys that were never released (even if they were released in the real world, I have quite a bit of XR merch). But that's my theory!
I sure will! I plan to watch this video with him either later tonight or tomorrow, so I'll let him know!
@@ChrisHendricks I love the idea of the downloadabke game. I would be amazing to have all the minigames downloadable and making it possible to be played any time the player wants. I also wanted to ask if you plan to make a Club Penguin music related video about thin ice.
I'm a huge CP fan and a huge fan of your songs for the game for such a long time now. Thanks for everything you did for the game. I hope you see this message. Kindest regards from Brazil.
6:40 Really liked the scavenger hunts idea, specially the use of the igloo to start it.
I always thought that igloos were kinda dull as the only thing possible to do there was socialize or decorate it.
Furnitures that would “do stuff” like more multiplayer minigames or even itens that could be changed by others (like a bulletin board where other players could decorate with pins or postcards) would be a nice addition
I love celebrating Club Penguin's 19th anniversary with a video of their lore!
10:10 I actually think the mutual friending is much more suitable for games geared towards children. much better to have both players agree to be friends rather than some person trying to follow everyone in the pizza parlor
Happy Club Penguin's 19th birthday, y'all! My nickname was Pinglu50, born about July 2009.
I remember one of the PSA missions had a scene where a Puffle bowled over a small set of pins. Maybe that was a small remnant of the original Puffle Bowling idea?
i am LIVING for your club penguin BTS!!! it’s where i lived the majority of my life aged 8-12!!! my friend and i would fight over who got to date the cute boy penguins and we loved throwing elaborate igloo parties 😂😂
I still remember my club penguin 'boyfriend' LMAOO, their name was hedgehog with some numbers after 💀
Chris -- one thing I've always been fascinated with over the years of Club Penguin is the way people used to cheat. Whether that was coin generation hacks, item givers (I think those were a thing), or hacks to change your igloo to have ANY song that was in the game. Other hacks like wall walking or 'moon walking' too. I've seen it a lot over the years. Do you know about these and how they worked? Why was it so easy for cheaters to do these things? What measures were taken to prevent or try to catch players who were cheating? I know it's all very technical and may not have much to do with your art/music/creativity side.
Thanks for the new great video! Makes me miss it.
This would be great
Most hacks were done by intercepting and manipulating packets with a sniffer like WPE Pro. For example, you would capture the packet sent when you change your igloo music to a specific song (e.g., ID 31). Then, you could modify this packet to change the music ID to something else (e.g., ID 120) and resend the edited packet to the server. The server would then accept the modified packet and change the music. This was possible because the traffic wasn't really encrypted and the server often performed minimal validation on what players were requesting. For moon walking you'd capture the sitting action for example and just edit the packet's animation frame to one of the walking frames, then you'd walk in place. It was all very simple.
Can confirm that item givers were a thing. I don't think all items worked, but it was possible to give yourself some things. How do I know this? Don't worry about it.
I was banned for cheating and never knew how, because I had two accounts with all stamps, but only one was banned... The other one NEVER got banned...
That scavenger hunt idea would've be so fun because i remember playing countless rounds of hide and find with my friends on the servers and saw plenty other people playing it too, so a scavenger hunt mode would've been a hit especially since small trinkets or pins wouldve been harder to find instead of our penguins
11:10 mancala was the best game to play in club penguin to spend some time procrastinating!🎉
This video, 3 minutes ago, is a lovely surprise! Thank's you for making my childhood better
Can I just say a huge thank you to you Chris. You were part of a team that made my childhood online experience so much fun. I played from 2007 - 2010 and I loved every second. Your music still goes around my head sometimes. I’m 28 now and still have lots of fond memories of Club Penguin. Thank you again 😊
I think it’s interesting you mention being able to play offline because we did eventually get that with Club Penguin Island when that was shutting down
Honestly, I would download and actively play the game over and over. It would be cool for nostalgia, a private server with friends etc, everything being level or igc locked or even dlc locked.
If Space Aqua Grabber was announced, I would have lost my MIND. My favorite minigame plus SPACE?! So cool.
Custom Scavenger Hunts would have been *amazing*, especially if you get to place pins. One of my favorite parts of Club Penguin was roleplaying, like at the Pizza Parlor. I could totally see myself and others using custom scavenger hunts to create their own little PSA missions, for example.
Pool and Puffle Bowling both sounds super fun too.
Color Parties were fun! It was always disappointing to have my color not win and to never be able to choose it was pretty disappointing, though.
Ooh, sparklers sparking while waving sounds delightful.
Downloadable for preservation would have definitely been wonderful.
I'm in the same boat about Rockhopper Island (pun not intended 😆). That's a hilarious idea that Rockhopper is just horrible at directions.
Relatedly, my number 1 wish would have been for the "Help Herbert Home" movement many players were rallying for to become a reality sometime after Operation Blackout, with Rockhopper helping Herbert find a warmer island to live on.
The one thing I always wanted on Club Penguin was a time machine that let you go back to old parties so I could either relive some of my favorites or check out some of the ones I missed.
We did that a bit with the spy HQ, but yes, having that for other events would have been great!
NOOOOO
PUFFLE BOWLING SOUNDS SO FUN
Another special day, another special upload for the anniversary.
Loving your content! I like how you want to implement puffle bowling.
Bowling is one of my favorite sports!
It would be neat to see more interactive games like the pool ball. There's plenty enough like the Sled Racing and Mancala.
But, I'd love to see more casual games, like Chess/Checkers.
A slice of life in a penguin game!
I love Bowling too and also Basket ball
Idk if you're aware but Club Penguin Island did what you wanted the og Club Penguin to do (offline play)
if you're able to find a copy online or you redownload it on your phone the game now operates in offline mode and it lets you play and do everything, including things that used to be members only. It even has a debug mode which lets you mess around with the world like giving yourself infinite currency, triggering specific events, and even a way to host private servers to bring the game back online if you know what you're doing
bonus points: it even has all of the classic Club Penguin minigames (tho some are updated with the game's later artstyle)
I actually like the way the buddy system was, exactly because of the reasons you mentioned it could’ve gotten wrong :)
It's almost ironic that I watched the 5 things you didn't want video (and a ton of others) literally yesterday.
I grew up with Club Penguin from pretty early on. Actually lived in Kelowna til I was eleven and found out about the game from a classmate who said their dad was a staff member. So this game means... quite a bit to me and I consider it a huge part of the culture among the kids in my hometown. As well as a huge part of my life (it still is honestly) that helped me get through a very hard move and childhood. Getting to see a bunch of behind the scenes and hearing you talk about stuff here- as well hearing interviews and stuff from other videos and video essays- has been a real treat. Thank you so much for making these videos and giving us looks into how a big chunk of our childhoods were made.
Honestly makes me feel like I'm home again and I'm sure it's like that for many others too. Seriously, thank you so much.
Happy original CP 19th anniversary!! 💕 Thanks for the awesome video. I played this since 2007 and going back to it really feels like home.
it is SO gratifying to hear that the sensei always beat you in card jitsu from one of the big names of club penguin. it’s like a part of my childhood has finally gotten resolved lol
I love hearing about the development of games, movies, and so on, but this brings me back to a really special place in my mind. For me, the most memorable moment of playing Club Penguin was Christmas 2012.
Donating all my coins to “Coins for Change” and listening to the beautiful music made that time unforgettable. Thanks for sharing this piece of my childhood.
Chris, your insight on the game is invaluable. I hope you can always see how much impact and relevance the game still has to this day and feel proud of what you helped build. I'd love for you to one day host a live stream where fans can ask some questions about what you're currently working on, working behind the scenes at Club Penguin, your music composition, and art direction - if you were ever comfortable. I feel like there are endless stories and content living in your brain that I could probably listen for hours while it gets picked at. Btw - I have had an orange penguin in a blue lei as my profile picture on various socials for almost three yrs now and it has become a staple of my online presence (I'm assuming you drew it because I believe its some art circa 2006, I'd love to know though haha) Thank you again always for these amazing videos! ❤️
Thank you so much! Helping to build Club Penguin was indeed a huge achievement that I'm very thankful for... it's the gift that keeps on giving with fan comments like this. :)
I've done occasional livestreams, but it's been awhile... I should probably do another one again soon.
(And yes, that orange penguin is indeed one of my early drawings. likely for the Hawaiian party.)
Man, this was an unexpected but pleasant one! Happy 19th to a part of my childhood.
Great video!! This is a bit of an odd question, but i remember when i was 8-9, towards the end of when i played club penguin, i used those 3rd party "hacking" programs such as Penguin Storm. I remember gettkng banned once for what was called "bait items", like the skateboard. Id be super interested in hearing the staffs thoughts and struggles behind the acenes about dealing w/ these programs, as well as what the story was behind these "bait items".
What do I wish was added? Pretty much everything that was shown back in 2011 on the (not so)-secret "beta team" website.
It had a bunch of playable minigame concepts, including a 2d version of Puffle Bowling, and a game called "Fluffy the Fish" which was honestly one of my favourite Club Penguin minigames ever, even if it never was added to the actual game.
Ice Jam was cool too, even though we technically did get that one in several parties, I much preferred the art of the test version.
Outside of that, I would have liked to see that much promised "Server Jumping" feature.
Or the Loft Igloo that was in the game files back in 2010, but removed after it was discovered, only appearing again in 2012 in a promotional video. I think that would have been my favourite igloo.
For number 10, I love having the missions on the ds, and the mini games! It’s so much less stressful than joining a private server or downloading a random link. I love being able to still play the legitimate game that way even if it’s only a small part
Maybe a bit niche, but I wish the safe chat settings could have been changed! I joined as a young kid so my parents put safe chat on, and it was a bit embarrassing to my early teen self that I couldn’t change it to free chat haha
same!! i just booted up the DS games the other day, they're super nostalgic
i remember my friend who was older than me giving me her club penguin acc i think right before the stage came around!
ever since then i practically played until the end party… its been a huge part of my life! the little comic books id buy at book fair, begging my grandma to get the figures and puffle plushies.
these videos really bring me a lot of comfort and nostalgia, especially now being 20, almost 21 and old enough to be interested in the development and behind the scenes! i hope youre able to continue these videos ❤
its amazing how your personality and just everything about you makes total sense for you to had been part of the most glorious online flash game ever to exist!
Loved the Box Dimension being a year round thing with portal item you could put in your igloo.
CHRIS BACK WITH ANOTHER BANGER FOR ANNIVERSARY ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
As a space nerd I would've loved the space station, especially if it had actual educational stuff on space
In Beta Team there was a Puffle Bowling game but it used to scare me as a kid because the penguin grabbed the scared puffle by the top of the fur and then threw it, and when the puffle lost it would explode like a water balloon 😵💫
I learned the rules of Mancala even before Club Penguin. Back in the early 2000s my mom had a Nokia 3310 and it came with a similar game called Bantumi. :)
I remember leaving the family computer on overnight with my penguin on the Migrator the day it was supposed to leave, hoping that the next day I would wake up and be on Rockhopper Island
happy 19 years, club penguin! great vid, chris, hope we dont make you feel old by announcing when the game was released 😅
Hi, just to say, Club Penguin is still a huge fountain of inspiration for me, from the art style and the theme parties to the games and the music! Thank you and all who worked in this amazing game for working really hard in thinking ideas to get in the game for us to enjoy in our younger years ❤ That's dedication right there!
So the Puffle Bowling idea had my mind racing, here's my idea for how that functions:
At the end of the lane are 8-15 or so pins in varying layouts, not just the standard triangle, they can form all kinds of weird shapes. Your goal is to knock them down.
At the bottom of the screen, where your Penguin is bowling from, there's a ball return with 3 random differently colored puffles. You can pick any one of them to bowl with, and each color has a special ability (one can knock down both pins in a split, one is good at getting straight lines of pins, one (taking from the drawing you showed, the green puffle) can float over gutters, etc.). Once you use a puffle to bowl with, a new differently colored puffle (and thus a new ability) gets added to the ball return.
On top of using the puffle abilities, there is an aiming mechanic. I figure something similar to Wii sports for moving left or right to aim down the lane, and then using a simple timing minigame for the release (how good you do at timing determines your aim accuracy).
Essentially, each frame is using the best available puffle to knock down as many pins as possible, taking advantage of the different puffle abilities to do so. It's less about getting strikes (which would actually be very difficult given the varying pin layouts) and more about getting good shots (if you knock down four or more pins with a single puffle, you get a score bonus). Frames actually don't end until you knock down all the pins. I imagine the game being played in sets of three frames, so on average about ten throws of a puffle per session. I think three keeps the game from feeling too short without dragging on.
On a different note, I think the player made scavenger hunts could have been an interesting form of pin redistribution. Players could earn pins they may have missed previously by playing a scavenger hunt run by someone who has it. There are probably some drawbacks to that system (it makes pins less intrinsically special to find, scavenger hunt "spam") but it could have been convenient for people who couldn't always find them. Some potential safeguards are A. Having a waiting period before a pin is eligible for a scavenger hunt so people have more reason to look around when the pin is newly released, and B. Making certain pins (pins that weren't just randomly hidden around, for example the Ruby pin from the stage or the Rockhopper's key pin) ineligible for scavenger hunts to keep them more special.
Having club penguin be downloadable for preservation purposes wouldve been so nice. I'd love to just like HAVE it on my computer and be able to boot it up whenever and play offline after the servers have shut down. I know CPPS's exist but having the whole original game with my old account would be incredible :')
Chris i have a personal project that i have been making for a while and you and your creations are being a major inspiration.
Thank you a lots
for what it's worth, the color parties really felt like you were changing the game and setting it up. it was also super fun to get to flaunt the new color and try and match as many clothes with it. and since there were so few it really felt like not only a big deal, but you /had/ to be there unlike the theme parties that would come back around. thanks again for all you did
Always love hearing about the development of games that I played back when I was a kid. A mancala tutorial would've been super nice to have since I never knew how to play. Heck, I'm 22 now and I still have no idea how to play haha!
I will forever live for chris' club penguin development lore videos
I can't believe I just found your channel 😄😄😄; it's exactly the content I didn't know I needed, Club Penguin was a huge part of my childhood, a safe place where I could be whoever I wanted and connect with friends from everywhere. Sometimes I didn’t have internet at home, or the computer just wouldn’t work, but I’d always find a way to play. I’d go to a cybercafé or a friend’s house - whatever it took to make sure I didn’t miss anything happening in the game. Every event was a new excitement for me as a child, and I have such as lovely memories like receiving my first membership as a birthday surprise gift or the plush puffles my dad gave to me
Club Penguin was my first step into creativity and the audiovisual world. Thanks to the game, I discovered my passion, and now I’m studying this field; I used to make those music videos where my penguin would "sing" the lyrics and even had a blog to post game updates and write my own stories inspired by that world. I made friends I still remember fondly, people who shared my excitement for such a special place.
It meant so much to me that, years later, I got a penguin tattoo. The game was my childhood, and seeing someone keep that nostalgia alive makes me incredibly happy. Club Penguin was magical, and everyone who experienced it knows it had something unique. 🐧❤ Thank you for creating this content and bringing back such a beautiful part of my life
(Sorry if my English isn’t perfect!)
Super happy for a new Club Penguin video! Thank you Chris!
mancala tutorial is the real champion of this list because i still dont know how to play it
That last statement where you mention about preserving the games in downloadable form is so on point.
In an age where we see ancient media and history fading away quicker than expected, especially with websites (i.e. internet archive) hosting such media getting massacred by the cruel copyright laws of the world, it's never been a much better time to discover, collect & archive as much club penguin media as possible.
Everything that you've been doing on your channel has been a blessing to history enthusiasts and archeologists alike, even for a game about penguins.
Here's to hoping you'll continue sharing your past experiences when working on Club Penguin or anything else you've worked on for years to come, Hendricks!
Until then, waddle on!
Something similar to the custom scavenger hunts was in the ill-fated Club Penguin Island. It was one of a few portable games other penguins could join after one started it, one person would hide a few marbles in the current room, then a timer would start for the other players to find them all.
This was a super cool video, I never realized how much I wanted a Club Penguin space station. But the one item that really stood out to me was Puffle bowling because of how familiar it was. After thinking about it, there was a form of Puffle bowling: a toy set. One of the Club Penguin toys I had was a red Puffle house that unfolded into a tiny bowling lane that you could launch a red Puffle at a set of pins.
It’s interesting to see how many of these ideas become real even in small ways.
0:52 Club Penguin Game Day Mentioned!!
Nice vid! There were some space station related stuff with the Future Party 2014, but it was only for one party (also ig the alien ship on operation crustacean), I did always find it interesting how they honestly went in a super different direction that you would expect for those.
Also funny enough the Club Penguin Island offline mode was basically the concept you mentioned, tbh still hope someone makes an offline version of the game that isn't a pain to setup.
Also tbh thinking bout stuff I would've liked to see it would mainly be a lot of quality of life stuff, like outfit reserve slots, teleport to friends or something like that, music player on the main site or something, as well as a proper credits in the site somewhere! Always weird how none of the Club Penguin team was really credited anywhere, even in stuff like the DS and Wii games where it's just mentioned as “The Club Penguin Team”, I wonder why that's the case looking back ngl.
i will always remember logging in on halloween for the vibes and it was immaculate
This was really interesting. Great videos Chris!!! 👍
This is such a cool video! I don't know if you'll see this but I've been watching you since I was in middle school and I'm about to graduate high school 😅 your videos always bring a smile to my face, club penguin related or not.
Thank you for sharing these behind the scenes videos with us, I love them! Club Penguin was so special to so many of us as kids ❤️
The space station idea reminds me of a pretty obscure CPPS called Space Penguin. The island was hovering above earth and it had a pretty eerie vibe but it was cool for what it was
Since I’m early, I want to thank you for being such an awesome part of my childhood. Its invaluable and cant be put into words what those experiences mean to me.
It brings me such joy to see how much you still care for the Club Penguin fanbase after all these years!
This stuff is amazing. I never got a chance to play, but I do love learning about its history and how it was made!
It's so nice to learn something new about Club Penguin even though the game is 19 years old, I'd love to see more videos of behind the scenes of Club Penguin!
Cannot overstate how much I appreciate and love your Club Penguin videos, Chris! It’s so fun to learn more about this game and its history and hear your anecdotes from behind the scenes. You’re the best! Thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do for this community of people who still deeply love Club Penguin! 💙
13:05 I agree!!! One of my favorite things about Club Penguin were the mysteries. It allowed my imagination to run wild and daydream with me and my friends about what could be in the works. I also just loved seeing all the fan-created stuff online about ninjas, the iceberg tipping, upcoming Card Jitsu stuff, Rockhopper Island, the penguin statue in the mines, and rainbow puffles (even if a lot of these eventually became a reality). The theories that people came up with were so fun and it was so cool to see what other peoples imaginations came up with and they often kickstarted your own. It’s the same feeling you get when someone tells an old legend around a campfire. The excitement and thrill of the unknown is sometimes even greater than the reality :) thanks for making Club Penguin magical!
Chris, it's great to find your channel. I have so many fond memories of Club Penguin! I got to come on a quick tour of the office in Kelowna in 2007 aged 9 and it was such a cool and memorable experience for me 😊 I'll never forget one of the staff members telling me I was better than her at cart surfer, I felt like such a pro!
Omg I remember elf bowling
Shhh. My favorite documental just come out 🍿
That last point would've been a dream come true. I used to record a bunch of series playing as different characters in whatever party environment was around, and i always went to the emptiest servers for that. That along game preservation and being able to play whenever would've been so good.
Also love the idea of the sparkler! I def would've used it to pretend it being dragon fire while using the dragon costumes. Tho it's not far fetched kids would use even a microphone item to pretend it's dynamite lol.
I've said it before but thank you so much for making these videos, there's so much insight on how the game was made that I was always curious about as a kid
I love these kinds of videos! I agree on everything you said with maybe one exception.
I'm personally glad the friendship system worked the way it did. It would've made me kinda paranoid to know that anyone could "follow" me without my permission at any time. There were times I just wanted to be left alone, but also just having the option to choose/accept people you felt like you could trust was nice, and made you feel a lot more "private" than what what the social media that came after was like.
I couldn't agree more on Rockhopper's island. As a kid, I SO wanted it to become a reality, but I understand now that the reason it was so talked about was because it was unknown, just like how people made countless of spooky speculation videos about the ninjas before 2008. Everyone had their own images of what Rockhopper's island was like and that made it COOL. Me as a kid would never have admitted this but now I kinda feel like it's for the best that it stayed an unsolved mystery.
And wow, having your own penguin color would've been awesome! Why didn't anyone think of that? I sure didn't when I was a kid. I kept the same yellow color from the moment I started to the end 10 years later and never switched. It would've been really fun to have your "own" unique color that no one else knew the color code to!
Having a downloadable game huh... That would've been incredible :( I would wander around it to constantly today like an old man visiting his abandoned childhood town, LOL. I can just picture millions of adults wandering around in silence, and playing guitar by themselves in the otherwise quiet lighthouse... that feels weird to think about.
13:46 If I remember correctly, this joke was actually sort of used in a comic in one issue of the Club Penguin Magazine. It followed the characters from Quest for the Golden Puffle sailing off the island and supposedly getting stranded on a deserted island before the big reveal at the end that they washed up back on Club Penguin after the decorations for the summer party went up. Maybe it was a reference to Lance's idea? A funny coincidence either way!
Dear Chris. Thank you for creating not only a vital part of my childhood, but one for a lot and lot of my friends.
Love from Saudi Arabia.
Happy 19th anniversary!
Moving this up to the front, what I would add just at first thought from a childhood memory would be maybe something else to do if you were playing locally with someone else in the same place in real life, because it didn't really add much to the experience. I would also probably add an enemy range indicator to card jitsu snow because I liked the idea of it and it got me into FE in a way, but looking back it was basically just radiant dawn hard mode.
2:44 I felt this concept was pretty familiar, the red puffle uses a bowling pin and apparently there was a prototype game of it.
5:47 This would be interesting to add more interaction to the world and another reason to look around rooms than just hanging out, with how many rooms ended up being added. I was a pretty big scavenger hunt fan though mostly I just followed guides but I remember making my own video of the Card Jitsu Fire one once.
7:53 Looking back I'm not sure how I managed to just add random people as buddies and keep talking to them on later days but somehow it worked. Having a follower system might have been interesting, I remember when roblox changed to that as well. It's hard to say what following someone would really add as a function and the big celebrities like watex probably would have made a big deal about follow counts.
10:25 I did like figuring out how to steal and get free turns. I don't think I figured out any high level strategy by that point but it still felt like satisfying tech.
12:04 Leaving answers open to canon is nice for the fans too, and you never need to write yourself into a corner like the pineapple incident. I read a fan theory about that joke a few years ago and that seemed very plausible with the puffles already existing on the island.
14:08 On one hand this would have been nice QOL, on the other hand limiting options is nice as well to value them more and I ended up liking yellow and purple more as colours because of club penguin incidentally. The spectacle/controversy of Mimo777 rigging the polls for aqua to win was quite memorable as well.
16:58 This would have been nice. I remember coming back to the game in later years and the performance was pretty harsh, I never got to play card jitsu water properly because it always lagged too much.
Card Jitsu Snow was Fire Emblem... I never would have made this connection before, but you're correct. It even has the weapon triangle. I feel like I've stumbled upon an oracle. This is like a theophany.
GAME DAY MENTIONED! That game was the reason I got my Wii waaaay back in the day, I loved it so much!
Nice and VERY interesting video, Chris as always, everytime you upload a video it makes really exited to know more of the consept that i didn't know of my favourite childhood game. I've been wondering if you could tell us something about the charaters, they always been my favourite part of Club Penguin, specially the EPF members, and sadly people didn't see to talk about them that much (at least of what i can remember, i was a kid at the time).
Also Happy Club Penguin's 19th anyversary, and thank you for the video in such an important day for everyone!!
For as late as the brown puddle was added, the lab’s theme definitely fits in with the earlier pieces. Another Screenhog masterclass.
Your Club Penguin lore videos make me so happy. Thank you for posting another great reveal!!!
It’s always a great day when Chris uploads ❤
Man, it's so cool watching someone talk about Club Penguin behind the scenes as someone who played the game obsessively as a kid !
Thanks for the awesome video :) 👍
Happy anniversary to Club Penguin! Wild to think we're so close to the 20th anniversary lol. Fantastic video as usual, it was really interesting hearing these ideas, most of them are super great. But my favorites probably are making more color options and having the game available for download.
i always love hearing about the behind-the-scenes on club penguin. it's a bit cliche to say a game "was your childhood" but a large portion of my early childhood free time genuinely was taken up playing club penguin, and hearing about it always makes me reminisce about those times. i wish i could have played more of it over the years while it was still around. the PSA missions will always be my favorite part. waddle on, friends, waddle on.