The Journey was publicly announced after Club Penguin's Soundcloud page confirmed that they would soon be updating almost all of the rooms with new art and music. This documentary confirmed that the Town Center, the Plaza, Snow Forts, Beach, Dock, Clothes Shop, and Pizza Parlor (Ski Village was renovated but it is not shown on New Horizons) would be updated. Billybob referred to it as "The Next Leg of the Journey".
Club Penguin was originally meant to be a big snowball war game, but probably because war was a bit violent for the game, Lane suggested that they build on Lance Priebe's idea and release a virtual world full of games and locations. Even today, the team thinks that it is all about the kids. They said in the documentary that whatever the kids want them to do, they will do it. They even take requests of some players' ideas.
This reveals rejected names for Club Penguin, such as Penguin Chat, Penguin World, Penguin Land, and World of Penguins. Billybob said that they did not want to call it Penguin Chat because it was no longer a chat anymore. It was a full world full of places to explore. Later, the name Club Penguin was chosen because they wanted it to be like a club full of penguins, like a community of them.
The first part of the series currently has about 150,000 views.
Screenhog was first shown in real life in this video. He first appears at 0:20. This is what he told that Rsnail "created Experimental Penguins back in 2000."
During the Big Update story at the start that "in late 2004/early 2005 Rsnail created Penguin Chat 3, it was a test for Club Penguin." But the logo is from the original Penguin Chat.
Part 2
This video first teased the Puffle Creatures we would soon find.
Parts
Part 1 - A Brief History of Club Penguin was released on October 24, 2012, on the same day as the 7th Anniversary Party.
Part 2 - Gold Puffle and the Future of Puffles was released on November 22, 2013.
New Horizons - Part 1 - A Brief History of Club Penguin
Part 1 - A Brief History of Club Penguin
Club Penguin New Horizons Part 2 - Gold Puffle and the Future of Puffles