For many years, the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines: Unity and Unreal. In fact, by 2025 those two platforms were responsible for roughly 70% of the titles released on Steam. While the open‑source Godot engine has been gaining traction, most large publishers still cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine.
The result is a market that appears largely closed off to newcomers. Enter Immers, a startup founded by three industry veterans – Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient – who believe there is still room for a fresh approach. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of modern game development: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, Apple, and several other high‑profile studios.
Together they are setting out to challenge the status quo with a new, AI‑enhanced engine that promises lower costs and faster iteration for small teams. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because "the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply aren’t enough any more." He argues that AI‑assisted programming now lets developers start from a clean slate and assemble functional systems much more quickly than before. "With a lot of guidance and control, you can build something that delivers full functionality fast," he said. Valient, Immers’ chief technology officer, is quick to clarify that the AI they are using is not the sort of generative‑prompt model that many people associate with the buzzword today.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. "AI can reason about massive amounts of data and the underlying code," he explained. "If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny studios can plug in custom features – think a bespoke particle system or a unique animation pipeline – without being limited to a narrow scripting layer. The AI simply accelerates the extension process." The motivation behind Immers is also economic.
Brussee paints a bleak picture of the current market: "It’s really hard to be successful making games. Budgets keep inflating, development cycles stretch, and the risk to studios is enormous." He believes that by rethinking workflows and leveraging AI, developers can cut costs, shrink team sizes, and bring products to market faster, thereby reducing the financial pressure that threatens many independent studios. De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has given developers a reliable foundation, it has also stifled innovation.
"Continuing to do exactly what we’ve always done isn’t enough," he says. "The industry needs a breakthrough, not another incremental update." One of the biggest pain points with existing engines, according to De Jong, is their monolithic nature.
Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which can be a major bottleneck. By contrast, Immers aims to create a flexible environment where the engine adapts to the user’s needs. "You should be able to swap components, append new modules, or modify existing tools to fit your exact workflow," he explains.
"Imagine a designer who can craft a custom toolbar with shortcuts tailored to a specific project – that level of personalization is what we’re targeting." Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it is "really powerful," it can also "go off the rails" if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immers is built around transparency and control.
Users will always see what the engine is doing, have access to its decision history, and be able to reproduce results reliably. This level of oversight is crucial for creative pipelines where a designer might need to generate five characters with a particular trait in minutes rather than weeks.
Flexibility is baked into the engine’s core. De Jong stresses that Immers does not impose a single workflow; instead, it offers a modular architecture that lets teams decide how much AI they want to employ and where. "The framework is there, but the choice of how to use it is entirely up to the developer," he says. "We just need to ensure the AI understands the context correctly." Interoperability is another priority.
By relying on open, text‑based standards, Immers can communicate seamlessly with tools such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. "When files are plain text, any program can read them," Brussee notes. "That means the AI can parse assets, modify them, and hand them back to the engine without proprietary barriers. This openness is something many current engines lack, and it opens the door to smarter, more integrated pipelines." The broader AI debate in game development is heated.
Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience. Immers’ team acknowledges the hype but frames AI as a tool rather than a magic button. Valient believes that AI will make creators better, not replace them.
"The negative connotations stem from the scale of disruption," he says. "But every transformative technology has faced pushback before it became mainstream." Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with many warning of a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; many companies simply fell away, leaving the robust infrastructure behind. "We’re focused on building a solid engine.
AI helps us iterate faster and think bigger, but the core product must stand on its own merits," he asserts. Funding for Immers remains modest. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as "reasonable." Brussee warns against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency.
"Startups need to stay scrappy," he laughs. "Too much money can make you lazy." The team itself is tiny – just the three founders plus a handful of helpers – a deliberate choice to remain agile. De Jong explains the trade‑off: a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be tackled by a massive crew overnight, yet timing is critical. "We have a window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry.
We need enough resources to seize it, but not so many that we lose focus," he says. Immers is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The goal is to release this demo within the month, a timeline that Brussee says is already twice as fast as originally projected.
"We started in April and expected to be finished by year‑end; now we’re ahead of schedule," he notes. As for the business model, Immers is still exploring options.
Brussee admires Epic Games’ revenue‑share approach – "we succeed when you succeed" – but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will enable more daring, creative games.
"We love games and want to see more artistic risk‑taking," Brussee concludes. "If our technology can help developers push the medium forward, that would be amazing."