Pixel Dash Studios co-founders Evan Smith and Jason Tate launched their Baton Rouge-based video game development company in 2009 with a single desk at the Louisiana Technology Park, grinding away at projects for other companies as they gradually built their business and plotted a more ambitious future. “We had the idea to try to do a bigger project,” Tate says.
That idea became reality in 2012 when the developers turned to Kickstarter to finance a project inspired by the 1990s game “Road Rash,” in which players raced motorcycles while fighting off other racers with an assortment of weapons. The fundraising campaign for the new game, called “Road Redemption,” tapped into nostalgia for the classic title, eventually raising more than $180,000 from over 4,400 backers. Suddenly Pixel Dash was on the map. “That started us on the path of doing more PC and console games and more hardcore games,” Tate says.
The company delivered on its Kickstarter promise in 2014, releasing an early version of “Road Redemption” on the video-game marketplace Steam and drawing critical acclaim. The game has since sold 100,000 copies, with a full version slated for the near future along with new versions for different gaming systems. Pixel Dash is now an anchor tenant at the Tech Park, employing 10 people and preparing for additional growth as it prepares to launch new projects.