For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, responsible for roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have gained traction and some studios continue to rely on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a notable example—the market has largely been locked into the duopoly of Unity and Unreal.
Enter Immers, a new venture founded by three seasoned veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry, with experience at Epic Games (the creator of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together they believe there is still room for a fresh engine that addresses the shortcomings of the current offerings. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a novel engine because “the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply aren’t sufficient any more.” He points to AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that can let developers start from a clean slate while still retaining tight guidance and control. In his view, AI can accelerate the delivery of fully‑functional features without the long, labor‑intensive cycles that have become the norm.
Valient, Immers’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the company’s use of AI is not about “prompt‑to‑code” magic tricks. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “When the codebase is designed with AI reasoning in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without being confined to a limited scripting layer,” he says.
This philosophy aims to let smaller teams extend the engine quickly, turning AI into a productivity booster rather than a black‑box. The motivation behind Immers is also a reaction to the current state of the games market, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Development costs keep climbing, making it increasingly difficult for independent studios to break even. He argues that the industry needs new workflows that shrink budgets, reduce team sizes, and shorten timelines, thereby lowering the personal and financial risk for creators.
De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation has produced a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. “We’re at a point where the challenges facing the industry demand fresh ideas, not just more of the same,” he asserts. He criticizes the monolithic nature of existing engines, which force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
With AI, Immers aims to deliver a system that molds itself to the developer’s needs, offering interchangeable modules, appendable components, and the ability to craft tailor‑made tools. Flexibility is a recurring theme. De Jong envisions a scenario where a developer can build an interface that mirrors their personal workflow—exact shortcuts, specific features, and a layout that matches the project’s demands. This level of customization, powered by AI, would let creators iterate faster and focus on the creative aspects rather than wrestling with the engine’s constraints.
Valient also warns that AI, while powerful, can “go off the rails” if left unchecked. Immers therefore emphasizes transparency: users will always see what the engine is doing, have access to its decision history, and retain full control over repeatable processes.
He illustrates this with a hypothetical: generating five characters with a particular trait used to require weeks of planning; now, a developer could sketch the idea over coffee, let the AI produce the assets, reuse the tool a handful of times, and discard it—dramatically cutting cost. The architecture of Immers is deliberately agnostic. It does not enforce a single workflow or a prescribed amount of AI involvement.
Instead, it provides a framework that lets teams decide how much automation they want and where to apply it, while ensuring the AI interprets commands correctly. Open standards also play a crucial role; by using text‑based file formats, the engine can interoperate with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative system that adheres to the same specifications. Brussee notes that many companies are now embedding these open standards into their pipelines, and Immers wants to be a conduit rather than an isolated outlier.
The broader conversation about AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype “click‑to‑game” scenarios where a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience.
Immers acknowledges that such extremes are speculative; for them, AI remains a tool that amplifies human creativity rather than replaces it. Valient stresses that AI’s current negative perception stems from its disruptive speed, but ultimately it will make developers better. Economic anxieties also surface, with critics labeling the AI boom a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying technology— the internet—persisted and flourished.
He believes Immers’ focus on building a genuinely useful engine will allow it to survive any market correction, regardless of whether the hype subsides. Funding details remain vague.
Immers has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excessive capital, suggesting that too much money can breed complacency and diminish the scrappy mindset needed for a lean startup. The team itself is tiny—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explains that a massive staff would not necessarily accelerate engine development; a small, focused group can make deliberate decisions and iterate more efficiently.
However, they must balance this with the need to capitalize on the current window of opportunity created by AI’s rise. Currently, Immers is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The goal is to release the demo within the month, a timeline that has already outpaced their original expectation of year‑end delivery. Brussee remarks that they are moving “two times faster than anticipated,” making precise timeline predictions difficult.
Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic Games’ philosophy of succeeding when developers succeed, but admits it is too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. Ultimately, the founders hope Immers will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more risk‑taking, artistic expression, and innovation in games. As Brussee puts it, “We love games, we love complex artistic expression, and we want to see more of it.
If our technology can help make that happen, that would be amazing.”