I'm actually really glad that the "lazy" route of no shadows for the clothing was taken, since it made the clothes pop more instead of muddying up the aesthetic

For what it's worth, the paper doll's empty-minded/depressed look is the funniest and most iconic thing you could've made

Hey Chris as a kid in the 2000s with autism, Club Penguin really helped me learn how to socialise especially online. One thing I rememeber talking about for hours with my friends on the playground were penguin designs and new clothing that would be added periodicallty. Knowing your the guy behind so much of what made club penguin so memorable and charming. You basically made my childhood I doubt you'll see this but, thank you so much for what you did for this game waddle on.

I Never noticed that clothes never casted shadows onto themselves but it really added to the art style can’t lie

It's kinda funny to hear you lament the early "no art style" art style, because I know myself and several other people are very nostalgic for the early scrappier art style. Especially to my Elementary school eyes, it looked amazing and I remember struggling to try and recapture the same aesthetic in my own artwork

This makes a lot more sense as to why items with "special" animations (such as the miner's helmet or instruments) would only perform that special animation when every other clothing item was unequipped! That would mean every single other article of clothing would have to be rendered for these additional special animations. It was something I always wondered as a child, but I never realized how much effort went into creating a clothing item.

It's so cool that you get to hear from us now as adults!! But then again, it feels like you always respected your audience, no matter how young we were. I really like how you talk about us players when we were kids-- you knew that our joy was just as big as any adult's.

I grew up in Kelowna, BC and I remember seeing club penguin artists at the children's fairs there! The fact that your design was so influential that artists in 2014 could still sketch it up in seconds is super cool!

I remember I used to draw over the paper doll penguin drawing you made to make my own clothing items. I've never really thought the original paper doll design you created for the penguin was goofy. I actually saw it as a blank canvas for creative ideas.

The penguin puppet drawing is literally the best and most iconic Club Penguin drawing ever! That drawing will live in my heart rent free forever!

What a fascinating video! It's crazy to think the transition from Swift 3D to 3D Studio Max involved you rebuilding everything from scratch pixel-perfect, but still it "only" took 1.5 weeks, and probably freed up so much time for future designers. I guess it goes to show what seems like an insurmountable ordeal can actually be the right thing to do!

Oh maaaan, you dont know how much this penguin and all of your works meant to my childhood, i still remember how this game allowed me to learn ANOTHER LANGUAGE, im from chile, latin america, i did not know a single word of english, until one day in a new years eve, the club penguin team that translated the game did not (i dont know if purposelly or not) translate the words on the title of the event "coins for change", and that made me want to investigate what it could mean, so i started translating word for word whatever i saw in club penguin, nightclub, pizza, whatever word id see plastered around the map, i would go and translate, that allowed me to start learning, and i know my english has yet a lot of improvement to do, but this has allowed me to meet thousands of wonderful people, is a talent that has allowed me to grow and also impress people, you dont know how much easier school became for me thanks to your artwork of a penguin and what it brought to my life. Also one of my most well regarded childhood memory is to me that once my grandma, a 64 year old woman back then who didnt knew nothing about club penguin, internet or anything at all, and that we didnt also had that much money, and here in chile we didnt also had much stuff arriving, i saw the first official product of the game like when i was 15 years old and i had started playing when i was 6 or 7, anyways, my grandma would always hear that i talked about penguins and stuff, and one day she was working on a market sale (like a latin market, a full street full of normal people with products from their farms, selling vegetables, fruits, used clothes, and whatever), she was a salesman for a communications brand (TV, internet, phone and that) and stopped to get a rest from delivering her number on paper to get new deals, and saw a pack of penguin cards that she found beautiful for me cause she knew i loved penguins, turns out it was an official pack of cards of the game, it had the codes and card jitsu cards, i was so amazed cause me and my mom, had looked on a retail stores, club penguin was nowhere to be found and somehow my grandma had it found on accident, i was given a cool guitar, clothes and stuff thanks to the code, i know its dumb but i remember being so happy and i couldnt believe my grandma had brought that to me out of nowhere. I used to sell puffle drawings on paper to my friends also on like 2nd grade so feel free to strike me for violations of intellectual property lol 😂 Sorry for the long ahh post, i thought you mightve liked to hear how much your work meant to me, club penguin raised me and taught me lots of things and allowed me to live many kinds of things you couldnt imagine a single penguin drawing and game can make, anyways, thank u for the memory ride, i have no words to describe the amount of happiness and joy all u people gave to a full generation, i cannot fathom to imagine how many stories like mine there has to be around the world, and it was all thanks to a couple people with inmense amounts of talent and a dedication to their work, cheers ❤

The paper doll was always so funny to me with its unreadable expression. I love how uncanny it looks when you wear the more modern and detailed items. But I like it for that reason. It's the only part of Club Penguin's original artstyle that stuck around all the way through.

I can't believe club penguin can legally drink in some countries now

I, a member of the original target audience of Club Penguin, am now as old as you were when you began working on the game. This is definitely a new kind of reminiscing about the past.

the penguin model and paper doll are arguably some of the biggest icons of my childhood! can't believe that iconic 2d penguin was whipped up in 15 minutes, i thought it was the cutest and the art style was so fun! your work lives on forever in the hearts of many

The iconic dance being made up mostly of already made frames makes so much sense the more I think about it, thank you for bringing joy to so many!

As a kid I used to screenshot the paper doll and put it into paint so that I could customise it with whatever colours and clothing I wanted. It’s amazing how such a simple drawing has been seen by hundreds of millions of people, and is still loved to this day :)

I cannot understate how much Club Penguin impacted my childhood. Some of my strongest memories are going to the supermarket and buying a membership card, printing out the night of the living sled paper puppets, and just sitting in a corner and listening to the soundtrack. Its so cool seeing the behind the scenes, and i’m so thankful that you guys kept all of these “artifacts”. Thank you, from all of us.

The paper doll is incredible and hearing the lore on it makes it even better

A man who listens to his audience. :) Can’t wait to celebrate the 18th birthday of Club Penguin tomorrow hope you can find some time to participate in the live chat with us Chris. Thanks for all you do and have done

Thank you, Chris, this penguin and your music are iconic to a very high proportion of all the world's adolescents, and I'm grateful to have been one of the people you were doing it for at the time. Best wishes.

This game devoured my whole life when I was a kid and I will always miss it dearly, but this video helps me get the "be happy it happened" mentality. Love getting some insight

I didn’t know I needed this video. Thank you for your contribution to my childhood. Hours and hours on the club… asking mom for membership gift cards at Safeway. Played some rewritten while it was up. Im glad to be able to thank you.

Dude I am glad the paper-doll penguin is so lumpy looking cuz I always thought that it looked like an old family dog; where it looks kinda wistful and kinda dumb, AND the short arms definitely make it cuter. This game was one of the best parts of my childhood. Love your channel, keep up the good work!

this guy single handedly designed our childhoods, and that is fire

I love hearing development horror stories about how duct-taped and slapped together some of those early aspects were, and I'm such a big fan of that early doofier looking art style, it might just be pure nostalgia but to this day I still think there's something so goofy and whimsical about it Fantastic video!!

Wow, I remember as a kid really liking the ghost sheet outfit in particular because there was something about it that looked extra special to me. Crazy to learn that it looked like that because it was hand animated in 2D 🤯

I was so into Club Penguin as a child. My penguin name was Fghfhfj, since I couldn’t figure out a penguin name and my mom got sick of waiting for me to pick a name. She mashed the keyboard and the rest was history. I remember drawing your penguin design and mailing it in to Club Penguin just before they were acquired by Disney. They responded with a letter and stickers. I can’t overstate how happy that made me. Thank you very much for the artistry you contributed to the game!!

I work as a cake decorator, and I used the Club penguin avatar as inspiration for a cupcake cake for a child's birthday. The chid wanted a penguin as the theme and it was my first thought of what to use. Your work is iconic!

As a kid i loved the peguin "paper doll" you drew. Always thought it made my character feel unique to the other penguins in the game because of the artistic difference. Never really was that jarring of a difference

the fact that we're all grownups/older now and are able to sit down and appreciate all the work that went into the game we loved that we would have NEVER considered as a child is so amazing to me. My brother and I used to sit down and draw little worlds and characters for our own games we wanted to make inspired by club penguin. We did it for YEARS. Thank you for taking the time to make and upload this Chris, as well as for all your work on my favorite game growing up. Like I said, I have a newfound appreciation for every little detail that was overlooked by us as kids that were clearly so important to the whole experience. Please keep up the good work!

Honestly, I never noticed that the clothing didn't have shadows. I was just impressed with the awesome clothes items that we did have and enjoying the great game that I was able to play as a kid.

I can’t believe the penguin puppet was a hasty afterthought! I literally think of that puppet as being the real penguin more than the 3d model itself, probably because of how a lot of the clothing began being rendered on the puppet and thus was more detailed there. I love the puppets gentle eye expression. It’s not making a wide eyed hyper smile like many kid’s animations are, and I think that lent to the whole mood of club penguin very nicely. It seemed like a happy, gentle, safe place. It was fun and exciting, but there were also so many time that I just logged on to relax, and I’d just sit around chatting with people or go ice fishing or redecorate my igloo. It was so nice to have a game that wasn’t nonstop high energy, and I feel like the fact that looking at each penguin player card meant looking back at a calm, gently smiling face made the entire tone of the game match that wonderful balance in mood

Thank you for your service. There are many developers out there that don't get the kind of credit they deserve. They end up one of the many forgettable names slapped into the credits. I personally love it when a Dev talks about what they had contributed to in a game even if the creation of a game is outside my scope of knowledge.

Thank you so much for putting the love that you did and still do into club penguin and making my childhood. Please never dislike your paper doll, when I was 4 it was the first thing I had ever tried to draw in a different pose, the first semi original piece I had made. Having gone from that to being 21 and fully adapt at 2d and 3d software and using it to make a living I have you and that paper doll to thank. Please keep creating, you never know who needs it.

0:00 a legend was born

Not gonna lie, the ending made me tear up. I'm currently in college for game design and animation, and on my laptop I have a customized Club Penguin avatar in a hoodie with my school's logo on it. Your work has touched more people and lives than you could ever know. Waddle on, my friend. And thank you for everything.

I think the short arms on the paper doll helped balance out the longer, lankier arms on the 3D model! My brain definitely combined both in my mind’s eye so I remember the penguin arms looking more natural than they actually were 😂

I noticed the lack of shadows as a kid and assumed it was a stylistic choice and thought it looked fine

im an animation student who just started learning 3d and the learning curve is kicking my ass. the fact that you pulled all this off with such shitty software is so cool!! the problem solving is so impressive and i hope to get there one day soon. i played club penguin religiously as a kid. thank you for all your iconic work!!!

i love how calmly chris can talk about how he contribuited to probably one of the most memorable "video game characters" of the internet.

the anguish talking about how you had to get complicated IP-centered outfits on a penguin older than the iPod was so funny.

It is so unbelievably cool to see the face behind the iconic penguin that defined my childhood!!! Thank you for this amazing video!!

Always had my penguin wearing the ghost sheet, no matter the party. I loved it so much I'd be like a pirate ghost or a knight ghost or a super hero ghost, but always the ghost sheet. I especially loved the combo of the ghost sheet and the sombreros, it was my favourite outfit. For almost a decade of playing I'd say I was wearing it 90% of the time, so my 7 year old self greatly appreciates the extra effort that went into it haha.

As a Club Penguin Veteran (Autumn '07!), who's now the same age you were when you first created these little guys, and loves faffing about with the raw assets inside .swf files, this was a FANTASTIC watch. Learning the history behind the evolution of the dance, hearing what software some of this was done on, all in time for the anniversary in which Club Penguin is now able to go for a pint in the UK? A fantastic evening watch. Thank you Mr. Hendricks! Oh, and consider my mind blown that the clothes didn't cast shadows! EDIT: And wasn't the Paper Doll Penguin nearly updated once? I'm sure I've seen it on the wiki. If anything, it looked a bit weirder as there were new style beaks on the original paper doll, and the art styles clashed horribly!

I’m an RA in college and I made name tags for my residents with the paper doll penguin!! Thank you for helping to shape my childhood ❤

The paper doll is honestly my favourite art in the game, and the fact the artstyle slightly shifted scene to scene actually gave it a kind of handmade charm that most games fail to replicate. Thank you for all your work.

Plot twist: the video was sponsored by Swift3D

Honestly as someone who has done (too much) research on Club Penguin history, I've realized that a loooot of aspects of the game were basically held together by duct tape and had to be redone completely years later when the work piled up haha, honestly impressive the team managed to work with Swift 3D for as long as they did.

I remember I was playing Club Penguin and I had just got the guitar item but I couldn't figure out how to play it because I had other items on. I was in the dance club and was asking how to do it and the player on the stage said "Take off all your clothes and dance" which was the correct answer to my question, but my mom was in the room and when she saw that message, she thought it was some creep online telling kids to take their clothes off lol.

I still miss my Penguins and my friend from Australia that I met there. The fishing game was my favorite, but then the music mixing and the spy stuff happened. I think the last time I played was when there was a bunch of fairy stuff everywhere. I miss the dojo, too. Thank you for being a part of my childhood!

Not really related to the video, but i praise you a lot. You are archiving and documenting everything you can share with us about this game. This is part of internet history and i'm really grateful you are doing this! I am a student in the Anthropolgy/History field , im involved with researching (i don't know how it works on other Universities, but here in brazil we students take part on a lot of researching), and it truly fascinates me how much you are giving and documenting to the internet, directly from the source. This is the kind of thing that really helps and preserves memory, history, and creates more and more inside looks on the developing part throught the years :) You're awesome!

This made me tear up! From being a little kid obsessed with drawing my penguin avatar to being 21 about to graduate college with an animation degree, Club Penguin has always stayed in the back of my mind. So many memories, so much fun. Your art inspired my art. Thank you!

what an absolute legend

Thank you for my childhood ❤

Sunk hundreds of hours into ClubPenguin as a kid from 2007-2013 and I never noticed that clothing didn’t have shadows! I did notice the changing 2D artstyle though but it was a great thing because of its charm. I loved going back to the boiler room and the second floor of the coffee shop and EPF to look at the old newspapers and the old books and play through the first spy missions and see how different the artstyles were from the newspaper that was out at that time. I generally love to see the game evolve over time and I could see how the team were able to use new things and what they were able to make of it, like the introduction of the new animation software. Ultimately Disney is what did me in for my time with Club Penguin as I felt it no longer had the charm and soul it always had before. When they overhauled the town and plaza to appear like a Marvel theme park that was when I decided to quit. Thank you Chris, for putting your time and love into this little Penguin chat room game for us all to enjoy and grow up on.

The Paper doll was actually super iconic I remember LOVING the look of that art as a kid.

learning the paper doll penguin was done in such short time and wasnt planned out that much is so crazy to me i always loved the dumpiness and clueless look of it, the penguins have so much charm and character to me just from that!!! i grew up after all my years waddling around to be an artist and the art of club penguin has influenced me an incredible amount, without you i wouldnt have had having nearly as much fun with art and developing my skills so i can only imagine your impact on others ❤

I remember calling my friends and meeting up in club penguin when I was a kid. Iconic game

I always noticed the lack of shadows in clothes; but I thought these were part of their artstyle and I actually liked this cel-shading-ish style.

Chris, I really am unable to convey the impact you and the rest of the club penguin team had on my childhood which is a big part of what I directly attribute to who I am today and why I chose my field of work. All of your random executive decisions and creative shortcuts in designing this game are all genuinely so admirable because I really spent so long messing around with the game. It's impressive that you at 22 made such an iconic art style which I can really only compare to the art style of ken sugimori's generation 1&2 pokemon art style in nostalgia and admiration. All of the things you drew are my favorite things in the game. My mind is blown that the weird limitation I perceived as a child where I had to take off all my clothes except one special item to do a special dance was a technical and animation limitation. And no, I never noticed the clothes didn't cast a shadow.

every piece of art was iconic and gives me a huge wave of 2000s nostalgia - especially the paper art for the penguin. thank you for helping to define my childhood! I still have memories of writing my username, sever name and a time on a piece of paper and giving it to my friends at school so we can meet up on club penguin.

First task: Make the penguin work Last task: Make the penguin work (in the new software) Anyway, love you Chris, you did a wonderful job and certainly had a large, positive impact on my childhood.

I never actually could put my finger on it, but I guess I could notice something was off about the clothing, in a good way. I think the decision to have the clothing not cast shadows gave it a distinct look that I personally love. I haven't really thought about Club Penguin for years and watching this video was truly nostalgic. Thank you for creating a huge part of my childhood!! lots of love from Argentina

Every time i watch one of your videos about the history of club penguin i get a little sad. Thanks for all the work you put in through those years, i started playing the game when i was in 3rd/4th grade (2005/2006), and i made sure to log in at least once a year until the game closed shop. I never had a member account, but everything you made still brought me lots of joy over those many years.

10:25 - Feature Creep Doesn't Exist, and other lies you can tell yourself to make it easier to sleep at night. As a software engineer I feel that one deep in my bones.

Dude, I never noticed that the clothes had no shadows. You made an excellent executive decision in that moment, one that probably affected the course of your work quite a bit! Hell yeah brother

I noticed the clothes not having shadows, but in all honesty, as a child, I didn’t care. Now, as an adult, I still don’t really care.

It was very fascinating and cool to hear about the player card penguin design being just a short 15 minute goofy illustration. Especially since it wasn't just used for the original game, but the DS games and the Wii game as well. You can't change what's iconic, and works! B)

16:27 the creation of the player card sounds like me and my homies planning the school work: one idea is approved by everybody because no one had any other better idea. I love it.

I had no idea that the penguin went through this much renovation and remodling. Also, the old club penguin art style was amazing.

Excellent video Chris

Club Penguin shaped my enjoyment of videogames forever: thank you, Chris, for creating such a wonderful game, the images and music have always stuck with me. It was a very welcoming place regardless of gender, background and age, and certainly a great introduction to the internet and videogames for a little girl like me at the time. In an online world where everything was so unsupervised, Club Penguin managed to be a a safe space for children while also being fun. You can't even imagine how much the games with my friends at school revolved around going on puffle adventures and passing notes in PSA code! I almost can't believe that I first logged in on February 2012... it seems like it was yesterday :')

I’m 26 now but was obsessed with Club Penguin from the very early days up until about 14/15 years old. I remember role playing as a pizza chef gordon ramsay-style, trying to sink the iceberg with my miners drill, waking up early before school to anxiously check the clothing catalog, creating a fake plane in my igloo and pretending to be a pilot, sitting in the boiler room and chatting with friends new and old. Good times. I miss it.

I love the Paper Doll story. So cute to imagine too. It felt like when your friend asks you for a drawing, you do a simple one in a couple of minutes and they get their mindblown by the very first finished result (even though it was not difficult at all) 😅😂

Now that you mention it, I've always though penguins in detailed outfits, where like none of the penguin was visible looked strange. I guess it was always in the back of my mind that the shadows were missing, cause everything clicks now you mention that. Funny you mention the penguin drawing for the menu being iconic; I've genuinely seen grafiti and stickers out in public of the default club penguin Penguin, the drawing is actually that iconic

I personally believe the clothing with no shadows gave a really nice authentic look. Really interesting to hear about how the whole process had started and progressed!

Wow it's amazing to see the guy behind the legendary penguin

im actually so honored to see the artist behind the best game ever show us how he made such masterpiece. you're rad.

I, a fully grown soon-to-be attorney, still get *very* nostalgic and feel like I'm home when I see the old art that you showed. It reminds me of the books and posters and Puffles I bought, and the time I spent on the island.

it would be a blessing if every artist ever did a video like this to explain their process, i love the attitude, editing and overall message.

I never noticed that the clothes lacked shadows, but as a little kid, I definitely did think that the shadow of the penguin's beak was a beard 😭 On many occasions I would be confused why every penguin had a gray beard (but only when walking around, not when you opened their profile), then I'd eventually figure out it was a shadow, and then months later I'd forget and noticed the beards again and be confused.

I was a player since 2008/2009ish and MAN i was in love with the features, clothes, igloo decorating!! I'll forever miss that game, its up there for me with toontown for how memorable it is!!

Some people don't remember the iOS client for Club Penguin when it was around, but the models were properly 3D and had complete parity with the web browser version! Because I was completely unaware that the penguins and all of the accessories begin as being 3D, I mistakenly believed that *every item was completely remade just for the iOS version* and was blown away. Also, yes, I did notice that the clothing items had no shadows and it definitely stood out as looking strange to me, some items less so than others, but ultimately I just kind of brushed it off as being a curious creative decision. Very interesting to find out that it was a practical (and very understandable) one.

Thank you Chris/Screenhog for being a part of making our childhoods so great. Forever love to you and your creations. 🐧❤️

I actually noticed the clothing wasn't shaded. Granted I only learned of Club Penguin from the fan community when it was in its death throws, but still. I want to say that I definitively appreciated the craft of the work you and your accomplices put into the animations.

very cute, ty for helping in giving me an outlet during my childhood when everything was crazy, club penguin was a sweet space

We love you Screenhog! Thank you for everything you’ve made, you’ve touched so many people’s hearts and made so many childhoods great, Waddle on!

Club penguin was the one safe place i had as a kid, I played between 2009-2013 until my family became homeless at the time. That hand drawn charm to everything is what got me into art itself, and animating. I will always have such a mass appreciation for that time i got to spent on the island cause it felt like a place that was fully created out of love and passion. Id love to hear some insight about the igloo furniture and if you worked on them at all btw!

No, I did not notice that the clothes had no shadow! This is awesome!

"I don't have much to say, except that I feel very blessed. This penguin has butt." - Chris Hendricks, 2023

Just wanted to say, I do really miss Club Penguin and the art takes me back to doodling penguins with friends in school. As you can see I still use it as an avatar, and is in fact my work Slack one too - it’s just way too iconic, funny/goofy (in a great way) and of course, work safe. Thanks for the great work Chris! ❤

I love that the paper doll penguin was so goofy and simple, it made it SO fun and easy to draw as a kid. My friends and I would draw penguins with our own custom outfits and pets and we felt so cool!

Man, Club Penguin was the first place I began to explore my gender expression. I liked making boy outfits for my penguin, and telling other penguins I was a boy…at the time it was just my online persona to me, but. 1 year post-op, it’s funny to look back on. Made some awesome memories on Club Penguin, lots of friends. My favorite thing in the whole world was decorating my igloo for Halloween-I still listen to the Halloween music from the game all October. It just isn’t Halloween until I hear it!

I played Club Penguin from launch to about 2010 or so. I never noticed the lack of clothing shadows, for what it's worth!

i wrote a formal letter to your canadian offices explaining my absolute devastation at the unrealistic state you left the penguins' clothes in. no shadows? i couldn't believe it

God bless you Chris, you have no idea how meaningful some of your songs are to me. I remember listening to your Christmas songs on Club Penguin when my dad got back from deployment in Afghanistan when I was 9. He got home on Christmas Eve and I remember rolling back my computer chair and running up the stairs to hug him. Probably the only time I’ve ever cried out of sheer happiness.

I remember as a kid absolutely loving the paper doll penguin. It looked like the most chill being in existance and I loved it.

i love that part where chris gets vietnam flashback while all of the club penguin items scroll down