For years, the game‑development landscape has been dominated by a duopoly: Unity and Unreal Engine. In 2025, roughly seventy percent of titles released on Steam were built with one of those two platforms.
While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have gained traction, and a handful of major studios continue to rely on proprietary tools—Capcom’s RE Engine being a notable example—the market has largely settled into a comfortable, if not complacent, equilibrium. Enter Immersive (styled Immens), a fledgling startup founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of modern game‑making, spanning 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 not only competes with the established giants but also addresses the shortcomings that have begun to surface as development costs soar.
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 an AI‑enhanced engine simply didn’t exist.
Today, with AI‑supported programming, we can start from a clean slate and deliver full‑featured tools much faster than before," he said. This sentiment is echoed by Valient, Immersive’s chief technology officer, who clarified that the AI they are integrating is not the kind that generates assets from a single prompt. Instead, it serves as an extensibility layer that understands the codebase and helps developers augment the engine itself.
"AI can reason about massive amounts of data and code," Valient noted. "If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo creators or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle effect—without being confined to a limited scripting environment. The goal is to let people use AI to accelerate extensions, not replace the creative process." The motivation behind Immersive’s ambitious project stems from a bleak market reality that Brussee described as "rough." Game development has become increasingly expensive, and the risk of investing years of work into a title that never recoups its budget is higher than ever. "We need new ways of working, more efficient pipelines that let smaller teams deliver high‑quality experiences on tighter budgets," he argued.
De Jong, the chief product officer, added that the engine space has entered a phase of "standardisation and consolidation." While that has provided a solid foundation, it has also led to a monolithic approach where developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. According to De Jong, the next generation of engines must be flexible. "You should be able to swap components, append new modules, and craft tools that match your personal workflow," he said.
He illustrated this with a personal example: building a custom interface that mirrors his own design habits, complete with shortcuts and feature sets tailored to his team’s needs. This level of personalization, he believes, is only feasible when the underlying architecture is deliberately open and modular.
Valient cautioned that AI, while powerful, can "go off the rails" if left unchecked. Immersive therefore emphasizes transparency and control: developers can see exactly what the engine is doing, track its decision history, and ensure repeatable results.
This accountability is crucial when AI is used to automate tasks such as generating multiple characters with specific traits—a process that previously could take weeks but now might be accomplished over a coffee break. The ability to spin up a tool, use it a handful of times, and discard it without incurring massive costs is a core promise of their approach. Flexibility extends beyond workflow to interoperability. Immersive plans to adopt open standards, allowing the engine to read and write text‑based files that any other tool can understand.
"If you have a Blender model or a Maya animation, the engine can ingest it directly because everything speaks the same language," Brussee explained. This contrasts with many existing engines that act as closed ecosystems, forcing developers to juggle conversion pipelines and proprietary formats. The conversation around AI in games is often polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a simple prompt can spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, fueling fears of "click‑to‑game" shortcuts that could diminish craftsmanship.
Immersive acknowledges these concerns but frames AI as a tool rather than a replacement. Valient believes that AI will make creators better, not obsolete, and that the industry has a responsibility to wield the technology responsibly. Economic anxieties also linger. Critics warn that the AI boom may be a bubble, reminiscent of the dot‑com era, with inflated valuations and unsustainable hype.
Valient counters that even if some companies falter, the underlying technology will persist. "The internet didn’t disappear after the dot‑com crash; the good products survived," he said.
Immersive’s focus remains on building a genuinely useful engine, using AI to accelerate development and enable bolder creative visions. Funding for Immersive is still in its early stages. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as "reasonable." Brussee warned against over‑capitalisation, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The team deliberately remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—to stay scrappy and make deliberate decisions. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act. De Jong explained that building an engine is a complex, multi‑year endeavour that cannot be rushed by throwing a massive workforce at it. Yet there is a limited window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry.
The challenge is to have enough resources to seize that moment without diluting focus. Currently, Immersive is working toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. They aim to release the demo within the month, already having accelerated their timeline dramatically—what was initially projected to take until year‑end is now expected in weeks.
Brussee admitted that predicting exact schedules is difficult when the technology moves so quickly. On the business model front, Immersive admires Epic Games’ philosophy of succeeding when its users succeed, but it remains too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. The founders are focused on delivering a compelling product first. Ultimately, the trio hopes their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward.
"We love games as an art form and want to see more risk‑taking and innovation," Brussee concluded. "If our technology can help developers build more ambitious, creative experiences, that would be amazing."