For many years, Unity and Unreal have reigned supreme in the video‑game development arena, accounting for roughly 70 % of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made notable gains and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been a duopoly. Against this backdrop, three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immersive Technologies (Immens) with the belief that a fresh engine is both possible and necessary. The founders’ résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Their collective background fuels confidence that they can challenge the entrenched giants. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is ripe: “There’s an opportunity now to build a new engine that didn’t exist a couple of years ago.” He points to AI‑assisted programming as the catalyst that could let developers start from a clean slate and achieve full‑featured results far more quickly than before. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they employ is not the “prompt‑to‑output” variety that dominates headlines. Instead, it is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible.
“AI can reason about large amounts of data and source code,” he explains. “If we design the engine with that in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system, a bespoke animation pipeline, or any other feature without being constrained to a limited scripting layer.” This approach aims to let creators harness AI as a productivity multiplier rather than a replacement for human ingenuity. The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑centric design is the increasingly hostile economics of game making. Brussee describes the current climate as “rough,” noting that development budgets are swelling while the margin for error shrinks.
“Games are getting ever more expensive,” he says. “We need new ways to break that cycle, to make games with smaller teams, tighter budgets, and faster turnaround, so studios aren’t gambling their livelihoods on a single hit.” De Jong, the chief product officer, adds that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While this has provided a solid foundation, he argues the industry now needs genuine innovation. “Continuing to do things the way they’ve always been done isn’t enough,” he says.
“We need a different approach, one that embraces flexibility rather than imposing a monolithic workflow.” Current engines often force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. De Jong envisions an engine that bends to the user’s needs: “You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and modify the interface to match exactly what your project demands.” He illustrates this with a personal example—building a set of custom shortcuts and UI elements that reflect his own workflow, then sharing them with his team.
Valient acknowledges AI’s pitfalls, warning that unchecked models can “go off the rails” quickly. To mitigate this, Immens is built with transparency in mind. Users can see the engine’s decision history, ensuring repeatable outcomes and giving developers the ability to intervene when necessary. He likens the new workflow to a rapid‑prototype scenario: “What used to take weeks—creating five characters with specific traits—can now be imagined over coffee, generated, used a handful of times, and discarded.
That speed used to be prohibitively expensive.” Flexibility is baked into the core architecture. De Jong stresses that Immens does not dictate a single workflow; instead, it offers a framework where developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
“The AI must understand the context correctly, but the choice of when to rely on it stays with the user.” Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’s strategy. By embracing open, text‑based standards, the engine can seamlessly exchange data with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline.
Brussee notes, “When files are human‑readable, any program—including an AI—can parse and manipulate them. This openness solves a long‑standing problem where proprietary engines acted as closed islands, hindering collaboration across the toolchain.” The broader industry conversation around AI is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype “click‑to‑game” engines that could produce Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt.
Immens’s team tempers such expectations, viewing AI as a powerful assistant rather than a magic wand. Valient says, “Big games will still be crafted by skilled teams; AI simply makes everyone better.” De Jong adds a note of responsibility: “Any technology can be misused. It’s up to us to apply AI ethically and productively.” Economic anxieties also surface, with critics labeling the AI boom a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, arguing that while many startups will fail, the underlying technology endures.
“AI isn’t disappearing; it’s becoming the infrastructure that accelerates innovation, just as the internet did.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its first round of commitments but has not disclosed the exact amount, describing it as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against over‑capitalization, noting that excessive cash can breed complacency: “Startups need to stay scrappy.” The company remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explains the trade‑off: “Building an engine is complex; you can’t throw a million engineers at it. A small, focused team can make deliberate decisions and iterate faster, especially during this narrow window of opportunity created by AI’s rise.” A proof‑of‑concept demo showcasing generative‑AI‑driven editing is slated for release this month, already arriving ahead of the original schedule.
Brussee remarks that the team moved twice as fast as anticipated, making timeline predictions difficult. Regarding the business model, Immens is still exploring options. While they admire Epic Games’ “we succeed when you succeed” revenue share, they admit it’s too early to lock in specifics.
Ultimately, Brussee hopes Immens will enable creators to push the medium forward, fostering risk‑taking and artistic expression. “We love games and want to see more creativity,” he says.
“If our technology helps spark innovation, that would be amazing.”