ENSIGNIA ENTERTAINMENT

In February 2013, three friends started their first business “Ensignia Entertainment, LLC” based in Huntington Beach, California. Their mission statement states that they are “focused on providing peerless traditional games that blend simple concepts and limitless strategic potential.” I had a chance to speak to two members of the company. Rick Barnes, at age 25 years old attended Trabuco high school and dropped out of Saddleback College, citing that he didn’t need a degree to do what he wants to do with his life. He is sole owner of the company. The other is Zack Schuster, age 23 years, is the Art Director. He has attended Tesoro High School and will be graduating from the Art Institute of Orange County with Media Arts and Animation at the end of the second quarter of this year.

What does the name mean? How did you arrive at this name?

Zack: “Ensignia Entertainment” came from our flagship game, “Privateer.” It’s a callback to the flag signs that pirates would use and the company is based on the definition of the word “Insignia.”

Rick: We had a number of trademarks we wanted to use before we arrived at “Ensignia Entertainment,” In fact there was about thirty different names we wanted to use. But “Ensignia Entertainment” is a good name because it promotes the game and is an alliterative name with the initials “EE.”

What came first: the game or company?

Zack: Rick had created the board game in his spare time and it inspired the company. It was originally just made for fun and our friends were having a great time playing the game that eventually came up with the idea that we could sell it through our own company so that we keep all the residuals.

Rick: We created the game just to have fun with our friends until Zack’s mother suggested that it’d be stupid if we didn’t monetize off the game. So Braven’s father had a friend who helps company get started and helps them along, and he owed his father a favor so he helped us with the inception and choosing a name and founding the company.

What is “Privateer?”

Rick: At its essence, it is a game on the high seas dealing with commodities and merchants, and emphasizes simplicity with the potential for complex strategy. I’ve been working on it in my free time for two years before I solidified the game and rules, and started testing it out.

What does the release schedule look like for “Privateer?”

Zack: We’ll finish the final layout and rules of “Privateer” by June 16th, and will start a Kickstarter by the end of the month. By the end of summer, “Privateer” will be launched.

Why did you want to do a board game?

Honestly, they are easy to make and not as technically advanced to create, such as video games which may be in our near future depending upon how well the company grows.

Will you continue to produce board games?

Zack: The plan is to move into video games after we make enough board games to support the company.

Any plans for future games?

Zack: Right now we are focused on “Privateer.” There are ideas for other games; however, they are tentative and unofficial at this moment.

Rick: I have two ideas but once again we’re focused on “Privateer.” The first one deals with spies, espionage, and the mafia. Another one would be a mining game.

Describe how these games are being produced?

Zack: We’ll be financed through Kickstarter and will be producing all the pieces through local distributors.

Rick: We are dealing with local printers and local producers. The main thing is that we are trying to avoid warehouses as much as possible and are sticking to assembling the pieces from local businesses.

Eventually, you’d like to move into video games. What about video games interest you?

Rick: Unfortunately video games require a lot of capital. When we do move into video games, it’ll primarily be applications for mobile devices as it would be straight forward to implement our existing games into these app games. We would like to move into more complex video games for home computer and consoles but ultimately our capital will dictate the projects we do. We do have the trademark for our company to start making games so when the time comes, we will.

How many people is a part of the company at this moment?

Rick: There are currently four members at the moment. The company consists of Zack, Braven Carver, who deals with social media, marketing, and business development, Lonnie, who is outsourced concept artists, and I. Three of us (Barnes, Schuster, and Carver) have invested about 1500 to 2000 dollars in starting the company.

As far as growing the company, what kind of employees are looking to hire?

Rick: At the moment we are going to keep the company as small as possible and grow it as needs be. We’ll hire people out of necessity so that there isn’t any overlap in skill and ability.

Zack: This is all dependent on how the company grows.

Rick: Right now we’re just going to ride it out with three people.

(To Zack) How has your experiences at Art Institute helped you with this company?

Zack: I’m the art director and I create the concepts and guide Lonnie, an outsourced artist, through the designs of the pirates. All designs are approved by Rick. Rick is not an artist so he needed help with the concepts. The success of this company will dictate my future employment at other animation studios.