Humble Beginnings

So how does one become CEO of a successful game development company and find time to pursue knighthood in one’s free time? Kingsley says he has always tried to arrange his business life around what he wants to do, and that he has been pretty successful so far in doing just that.

His work with horses started early: “I managed to persuade my parents to give up foreign holidays and instead buy me a pony when I was 8 years old, and have never looked back. There have been a handful of years when I haven’t had a horse in my life, but only a handful.“ Kingsley turns 54 this year.

Kingsley says that myths, legends and science fiction have all been major drivers for him and his work. In a documentary about Medieval Mounted Combat that Rebellion produced in 2015, he calls himself “a historian with a deep, practical interest in the Middle Ages.”.

Rebellion Developments was founded in 1992 by Jason Kingsley and his brother Chris. Nowadays, the company is perhaps best known for Sniper Elite, a series of World War II first person shooter games.

“Chris and I get involved in all the games we make right from the start, and all the way through,” Kingsley tells The Mane Quest. “These days we have well over 300 full time staff helping us out, but back in the beginning, it was just the two of us making games.”

In a 2016 interview with the Evening Standard, Kingsley said that meetings and keeping track of projects within the company consume a lot of his work time.