For years, Unity and Unreal have ruled the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of all Steam releases projected for 2025. While Godot has made notable strides and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the duopoly of Unity and Unreal still dominates the market.
Yet three seasoned veterans, Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient, have launched Immersive (Immens) with the conviction that there is still room for a fresh engine and, more importantly, for a better way to build games. The founders bring an impressive résumé: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is right for a new engine, noting that "a few years ago this simply didn’t exist." He believes AI‑augmented programming can revive the notion of building a game from the ground up under tight guidance, delivering full‑featured results much faster than traditional pipelines.
Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, stresses that their use of AI is not about generating assets with a single prompt. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
"AI can reason over massive codebases and data," he explains. "If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can extend it beyond simple scripting. Want a custom particle system? You can plug it in directly.
The AI helps you add and iterate on those extensions quickly." The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current market climate, which Brussee describes as "rough." Game development costs are spiraling, making financial success increasingly elusive. He asks whether new workflows can break this cycle, allowing studios to produce high‑quality experiences with smaller teams, tighter budgets, and shorter timelines—thereby reducing the existential risk to developers and their studios.
De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that stability offers a solid foundation, the industry now faces a suite of challenges that demand innovation rather than incremental tweaks.
He criticizes the "monolithic approach" of existing engines, where developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid toolsets. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, delivering an engine that adapts to the creator’s workflow.
"Flexibility is key," De Jong says. "You should be able to swap components, append new features, and craft bespoke tools that match your personal workflow—down to shortcuts, UI layout, and specific functionality.
The engine should serve the project, not the other way around." Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. "If you don’t watch it, it can go off the rails," he warns.
Immens therefore places the user in full control: every AI action is transparent, repeatable, and logged, ensuring developers understand exactly how a result was produced. This traceability lets teams create disposable tools for specific tasks—like generating five characters with a unique trait—in minutes rather than weeks, dramatically lowering cost and increasing creative agility.
The platform is deliberately workflow‑agnostic. De Jong stresses that Immens does not impose a single pipeline; instead, it offers a modular architecture where developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
The engine also embraces open standards, meaning files are stored in text‑based formats that any compatible tool can read. "If you’re using Blender, Maya, or any generative system, you can plug it in because the data speaks a common language," Brussee notes.
This openness counters the typical isolation of proprietary engines, fostering smoother interoperability across the development stack. There is a vocal backlash against AI in game creation, with some commentators on LinkedIn sensationalizing the idea that a simple prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience. Immens’s team concedes that "click‑to‑game" engines might one day exist, but they view AI primarily as a powerful assistant, not a replacement for human creativity. Valient believes AI will elevate the entire industry, making developers more effective, while De Jong reminds us that any tool can be misused; the responsibility lies with creators to apply it ethically.
Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with fears of a bubble and inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear, even though many early companies failed. He argues that solid technology and genuinely useful products will endure, and Immens aims to be one of those lasting solutions. Whether the AI sector is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the team is focused on building a robust engine rather than chasing hype.
Funding details are still vague. Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the needed capital as "reasonable." Brussee warns against over‑funding, noting that excess cash can breed complacency and reduce the scrappy mindset essential for a startup. The company remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design, believing that a small, focused team can make decisive architectural choices without the overhead of a massive staff. Immens is currently 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 projection of a year‑long development, highlighting the speed gains they claim AI can deliver. As for the business model, Brussee admires Epic Games’ "we succeed when you succeed" philosophy but admits it is too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the boundaries of the medium. "We love games and want to see more daring, artistic expression," Brussee says.
"If our technology enables more risk‑taking and innovation, that would be amazing for the whole industry."