Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles released on Steam in 2025. While Godot has been gaining traction, the market still feels the weight of proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine, for example—leaving Unity and Unreal as the dominant choices for most studios. Enter Immersed, a new venture founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the gaming world, featuring stints at Epic Games, the creators of Unreal, as well as roles at Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
The trio believes there is still room for a fresh engine that not only competes with the giants but also improves upon the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is ripe for a new platform.
“There’s an opportunity now to build an engine that simply didn’t exist a couple of years ago,” he said. He added that AI‑augmented programming could allow developers to start projects from a clean slate, providing “guided, yet flexible, pathways to bring full‑featured experiences online quickly.” Valient, Immersed’s chief technology officer, clarified that their AI isn’t about generating assets with a single prompt. Instead, it’s a tool for constructing the engine itself in a highly extensible manner. “AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets,” he explained.
“If we architect the engine with that in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a unique physics module without wrestling with low‑level scripting. The AI assists in extending functionality faster, not in replacing the developer.” The motivation behind Immersed’s AI‑powered engine stems from a grim industry outlook. Brussee described the current climate as “rough,” noting that development budgets are swelling and the risk of financial failure is increasing. “We need new ways of working that lower costs and let smaller teams ship games faster,” he said.
The goal is to break the cycle of ever‑larger teams and ballooning expenses that threaten the viability of independent studios. De Jong, the company’s chief product officer, warned that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that standardization has provided a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry now faces a suite of challenges, and simply iterating on the old model won’t cut it,” he asserted. “What we need is a fresh approach, not more of the same.” One specific criticism De Jong leveled at existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers often have to conform to rigid workflows, proprietary file formats, and limited extensibility. With AI, Immersed aims to flip that paradigm: the engine should adapt to the developer’s needs, not the other way around. “Flexibility is key,” he said.
“You should be able to swap components, append new ones, or build bespoke tools that match your exact workflow—down to the shortcuts, the UI layout, and the feature set you require for a particular project.” Valient also cautioned that AI, while powerful, can veer off‑track if left unchecked. Immersed therefore builds transparency into the system: users can see what the AI is doing, review its decision history, and ensure reproducibility.
This control makes it possible to prototype complex tasks—like generating five distinct characters with specific traits—in a matter of minutes rather than weeks. “What once cost a small studio a fortune can now be achieved over a coffee break, then discarded if it no longer serves the project,” Valient noted. The architecture of Immersed is deliberately open‑ended. De Jong emphasized that the engine does not impose a single workflow; developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
To facilitate seamless collaboration with other tools, Immersed relies on open standards and text‑based file formats. “When files are plain text, any program can read them,” Brussee said.
“That means the AI can parse and manipulate assets from Blender, Maya, or any generative tool without proprietary barriers. This interoperability is a major differentiator.” There is a vocal backlash against AI in game development, with some pundits predicting a future where a simple prompt can conjure a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience. Immersed’s founders acknowledge the hype but view AI as a catalyst rather than a replacement.
Valient believes AI will make developers better, not obsolete, describing it as a “tool” that, when used responsibly, can elevate the entire medium. Economic concerns also loom large. Critics label the AI boom a bubble, fearing inflated valuations and unsustainable hype.
Valient counters that, much like the dot‑com era, the underlying technology endures even if individual startups fail. “AI isn’t disappearing,” he said. “The question is whether we can build a genuinely useful product that stands the test of time.” Funding remains modest at this stage. Immersed has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee warned against over‑funding, noting that excessive capital can breed complacency.
The company currently consists of the three founders plus a handful of “helpers,” a lean structure chosen deliberately to stay agile. Building an engine is a massive undertaking that cannot be rushed by throwing a large team at it. De Jong explained the need for a balanced approach: a small, focused group that can make thoughtful decisions while still having enough resources to seize the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immersed is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced the founders’ original expectations—what was projected to take a year is now on track for a few months. As for the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” revenue share but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific approach. Ultimately, the founders hope Immersed will enable creators to push the artistic and technical boundaries of games, fostering more risk‑taking and innovation.
“We love games and we want to see more daring, more expressive experiences,” Brussee concluded. “If our engine can help bring that vision to life, that would be amazing."