For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles launched on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides recently and some large studios continue to rely on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been locked into the duopoly of Unity and Unreal. Enter Immersive, a startup founded by three seasoned industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game tech, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators 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 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 would have seemed impossible. Today, AI‑augmented programming lets us start from scratch again and get functional features up quickly," he said.
Valient, Immersive’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the typical “prompt‑to‑output” model 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 gameplay mechanic without being limited to a narrow scripting layer," he noted. This approach aims to let creators extend the engine faster and more intuitively. The motivation behind Immersive’s AI‑powered engine stems from the harsh economic realities of modern game development. Brussee described the current climate as "rough," emphasizing that production costs keep climbing, making it harder for small teams to break even.
"We need new ways of working that shrink budgets, reduce team sizes, and accelerate timelines, so studios aren’t gambling their livelihoods on a single title," he argued. De Jong, the chief product officer, observed that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has given developers a solid base, it also stifles innovation.
"The industry faces a slew of challenges, and persisting with the same old processes won’t solve them. We need fresh ideas, not just more of the same," he said. One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the "monolithic" nature of existing engines. Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
With AI, Immersive envisions an engine that molds itself to the user’s needs. "Flexibility is key. You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and customize the interface to match your personal workflow," he explained. He gave an example of building a set of tools tailored to his own background, complete with preferred shortcuts and UI elements, to illustrate how the engine can be personalized.
Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked. "We’re building Immersive so that users retain full control and visibility over what the AI does.
You can see the history of changes, ensure repeatability, and create throw‑away tools for specific tasks without risking the whole project," he said. He illustrated this with a scenario where a designer could generate five unique characters in a coffee break, then discard the temporary tool once the job is done—something that would have taken weeks in a traditional pipeline.
The platform’s architecture deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. De Jong emphasized that developers can decide how much AI to incorporate and where to apply it, as long as the underlying system understands the context correctly. This openness extends to file formats as well; Immersive plans to rely on open, text‑based standards that any tool can read. "If your assets are stored in a human‑readable format, the AI can parse and manipulate them, and you can seamlessly plug in software like Blender, Maya, or any generative tool," Brussee said.
He believes that many engines have been outliers, refusing to play nicely with open standards, and that embracing these standards will create smarter, more interoperable pipelines. There is a vocal backlash against AI in game creation, often fueled by sensational claims that a simple prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience.
Immersive acknowledges the hype but treats AI as a "tool" rather than a magic button. Valient remarked, "AI will make everyone better, but the core creativity still comes from people. It's a powerful aid, not a replacement." Economic concerns also linger.
Some critics label the AI boom a bubble, comparing it to the dot‑com era. Valient responded that while valuations may be inflated, the underlying technology is here to stay. "The internet didn’t disappear after the dot‑com crash; the weak companies did. Good products survive, and we aim to build a solid engine that leverages AI to speed up development and enable bigger dreams," he said.
Funding details remain vague. Immersive has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable." Brussee cautioned against excess capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The team remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explained the balance: a complex engine cannot be built by a million‑person army, yet a small, focused team can make decisive progress during the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Currently, Immersive is developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month. The timeline has already outpaced their original estimate; what they thought would take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time.
As for the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s "we succeed when you succeed" philosophy but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific approach. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more artistic risk‑taking and innovation.
"We love games and want to see more daring, expressive experiences. If our technology helps make that possible, it would be amazing," Brussee concluded.