For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made noticeable strides recently and some major studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been monopolized by the two giants. Enter Immersive, a startup founded by three seasoned veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient.
Their résumés read like a tour of the industry’s most influential studios, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they believe there is still space for a fresh engine that addresses the shortcomings of the current offerings. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform: “A few years ago the idea of building an engine from the ground up with AI assistance simply didn’t exist. Now the technology has matured enough that we can start from scratch and still deliver a fully‑featured product quickly.” Valient, Immersive’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the sort of “prompt‑to‑content” magic that dominates headlines.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “If we design the engine with AI reasoning in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke animation tool without wrestling with opaque scripting layers,” he said.
The goal is to let creators extend the engine faster, using AI as a productivity partner rather than a black‑box generator. The motivation behind this ambitious project stems from the grim reality of today’s game market. Brussee described the environment as “rough,” noting that development costs keep climbing and the risk of financial ruin is higher than ever.
“We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he argued. By leveraging AI‑assisted pipelines, Immersive hopes to break the cycle of ever‑increasing expenses. De Jong, the chief product officer, observed that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that consolidation provides a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry now faces a series of challenges, and simply repeating the old formula won’t cut it. We need genuine innovation, not just more of the same,” he asserted.
One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the monolithic nature of current engines. Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
With AI, Immersive envisions an engine that molds itself to the developer’s needs. “Flexibility is key,” he explained.
“You should be able to swap components, append new features, or build entirely custom tools that match your personal workflow—down to the shortcuts, UI layout, and specific functionality you require.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can behave unpredictably if left unchecked. Immersive therefore builds transparency into the system: users can see exactly what the AI is doing, review its decision history, and ensure reproducibility. This control enables developers to create throw‑away tools for specific tasks—like generating five characters with a unique trait in minutes—without the massive overhead that would have taken weeks in the past. The engine’s architecture is deliberately agnostic.
De Jong emphasized that Immersive does not force a single workflow on its users. “You decide how much AI you want to incorporate and where,” he said. “Our job is to provide a solid, open framework that can adapt to any pipeline.” Interoperability is another cornerstone of the design. By adopting 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 application.
“When everything speaks the same language, you can plug in any software without the friction that proprietary engines often introduce,” Brussee noted. The broader conversation about AI in game development is fraught with hype and fear. Some pundits on LinkedIn claim that a single prompt could soon spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience.
Immersive acknowledges the excitement but treats AI as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. “Big games and everything in between will still be crafted by people; AI simply makes us better at it,” Valient said. He added that the technology carries negative connotations because it disrupts the industry at an unprecedented scale, but responsible use can mitigate those concerns. Economic anxieties also linger, with many questioning whether the AI boom is a bubble.
Valient compared it to the dot‑com era, arguing that while some companies will fall, the underlying technology will endure. “AI isn’t disappearing; it’s becoming the backbone of faster, more ambitious development,” he remarked. Immersive’s focus remains on building a high‑quality engine; whether the market is inflated is secondary. Funding details are still under wraps.
The founders have secured “first commitments” but have not disclosed amounts, emphasizing that excessive capital can breed complacency. “Too much money can make a startup lazy,” Brussee laughed, noting that staying lean forces the team to remain scrappy and inventive. Currently, Immersive consists of the three founders and a handful of helpers.
They believe a small, focused team is essential for tackling the complex task of engine creation. “You can’t throw a million engineers at an engine and expect it to work,” De Jong explained.
“A compact group can make deliberate decisions and iterate quickly, which is vital given the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise.” The team is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month. Their original timeline, set in April, projected a year‑long development; they are already moving at double that speed.
“Predicting exact dates is hard, but we’re clearly ahead of schedule,” Brussee said. Regarding the business model, Brussee expressed admiration for Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach but admitted it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy. Ultimately, the founders hope Immersive will empower creators to push artistic boundaries, take risks, and deliver innovative experiences that advance the medium.
In their own words, “We love games, we love the complex expression of the art form, and we want to see more creativity and risk‑taking. If our technology can help make that happen, that would be amazing.”