For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, together accounting for roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have begun to gain traction, the majority of large studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a notable example. In short, the engine market has long seemed locked into a duopoly.
Enter Immersive, the brainchild of three seasoned industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game development, spanning Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
The trio believes there is still room for a fresh engine, and more importantly, for a new way of building games. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a novel platform that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. “With AI‑assisted programming you can start from scratch again,” he said.
“Guided by smart tools, you can assemble a fully‑functional engine much faster than before.” Valient, Immersive’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ isn’t the kind that conjures assets from a single prompt. Instead, it is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “AI can reason about large amounts of data and source code,” he noted.
“If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system, a bespoke animation pipeline, or any other feature without being limited to a tiny scripting layer.” This extensibility, he argued, is the core of Immersive’s AI‑first philosophy: accelerate the creation of new tools rather than replace the developer’s imagination. The motivation behind the project stems from a bleak market reality that Brussee describes as “rough.” Game development costs continue to climb, making it increasingly difficult for small teams to break even. “We need new, more efficient workflows that lower budgets and shrink team sizes,” he said.
“If we can cut development time and expense, studios won’t have to gamble their entire livelihood on a single title.” De Jong, the company’s chief product officer, observed that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has provided a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry faces a host of challenges, and simply repeating the old playbook isn’t enough,” he argued.
“We need a paradigm shift, not another incremental update.” One of the pain points he highlighted is the monolithic nature of current engines. Developers must adapt to rigid, proprietary file formats and workflows that often feel forced upon them. With AI, Immersive aims to flip that script, delivering an engine that molds itself to the creator’s needs. “Flexibility is key,” De Jong explained.
“You should be able to swap components, append new modules, or craft entirely custom tools that match your personal workflow—down to the shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set you prefer.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly veer off course if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immersive is building transparency into the system: users can see exactly what the AI is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable outcomes. This level of control, he says, turns AI from a mysterious black box into a reliable assistant.
“Imagine needing five characters with a specific trait,” he illustrated. “Previously that might take weeks of manual work.
With the right AI‑driven tool, you could prototype them over coffee and iterate instantly, then discard the temporary script once the job is done. That kind of on‑demand workflow was prohibitively expensive before.” The engine’s design deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. De Jong emphasized that Immersive provides a framework, not a prescription.
“You decide how much AI you want, where you apply it, and how you structure your pipeline,” he said. “Our job is to make sure the underlying architecture is robust enough to support those choices.” Interoperability is another pillar of the platform. By embracing open, text‑based standards, Immersive ensures that files can be read and manipulated by any tool—whether it’s Blender, Maya, or a future generative‑art system.
“When everything speaks the same language, you can plug in external applications without wrestling with proprietary barriers,” Brussee noted. “That openness is a huge advantage over engines that isolate themselves behind closed formats.” The conversation around AI in game development is often polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑level world, fueling fears of a “click‑to‑game” dystopia. Immersive’s team acknowledges the hype but frames AI as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity.
“AI will make everyone better, not eliminate the craft,” Valient said. “It’s disruptive, yes, but that disruption is what can push the medium forward.” Economic concerns also linger, with many questioning whether AI‑focused startups are riding a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; rather, the strongest companies survived and flourished. “We’re focused on building a solid engine first,” he affirmed.
“AI simply accelerates our development and expands what’s possible. Whether the market is a bubble is uncertain, but the technology isn’t going away.” Funding remains modest.
Immersive has secured its “first commitments,” though the exact amount is undisclosed and described as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against over‑capitalization, noting that excess cash can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughed. “Too much money can make you lazy.” The company remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—by design.
De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex undertaking that doesn’t scale linearly with headcount. “You need a focused, small team to make deliberate decisions,” he said. “At the same time, there’s a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry.
We have to balance resources to hit that sweet spot.” Immersive is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The team aims to release this demo within the month, already having accelerated their timeline by a factor of two compared to the original estimate. “We started in April and expected to be ready by year‑end,” Brussee recalled. “Now we’re ahead of schedule, which makes precise timeline predictions tricky.” Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic Games’ “we succeed when you succeed” approach but admits it’s too early to declare a definitive strategy.
The overarching goal, however, is clear: empower creators to build more ambitious, risk‑taking games without the prohibitive costs that currently dominate the market. In the end, the three veterans hope Immersive’s engine will become a catalyst for artistic innovation.
“We love games and the complex expressions they enable,” Brussee concluded. “We want to see more creativity, more risk, and more breakthroughs.
If our technology can help make that happen, it would be amazing.”