Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles that landed on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides in recent years and some major studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been monopolised by the two giants. Enter Immersed’s founders, Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong and Michal Valient, three industry veterans who see a gap where a fresh engine could thrive.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑tech: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they are setting out to challenge the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine, noting, “A few years ago this simply wasn’t possible.” He believes that AI‑assisted programming now lets developers start from a clean slate without the heavy hand of legacy code.
“With guided, controllable AI you can assemble a fully‑functional system quickly,” he said. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, stresses that the AI they employ is not the sort of generative prompt‑engine that dominates headlines. Instead, their AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
“AI can reason about massive codebases and data sets,” he explained. “If we design the underlying code with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can plug in custom features—say, a bespoke particle system—without being limited to simple scripting.” This approach, he says, empowers creators to extend the engine rapidly and safely. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of game development, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Production costs are soaring, and the risk of failure is higher than ever. “We need new ways of working that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he argued.
“Otherwise studios are gambling their livelihoods on ever‑larger budgets.” De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine market has entered a phase of “standardisation and consolidation.” While this has provided a stable foundation, he warns that the industry now faces a series of challenges that cannot be solved by merely iterating on existing tools. “We need innovation, not more of the same,” he said. “A monolithic engine forces developers to adapt to its quirks and proprietary file formats.
With AI, we can flip that dynamic and let the engine adapt to the developer.” Flexibility is at the heart of Immens’s philosophy. De Jong envisions a system where users can swap components, append new modules, and craft bespoke tools tailored to their workflow.
“Imagine an interface built exactly to my personal habits—custom shortcuts, specialised panels, the whole pipeline—so my team can work the way we need to,” he explained. Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it is “really powerful,” it can also veer off course if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep developers in the driver’s seat: the engine logs its actions, provides transparent histories, and ensures repeatable outcomes.
“You could generate five characters with a specific trait in minutes, test the tool a handful of times, and discard it—something that used to cost weeks and a hefty budget,” he said. The platform does not impose a single workflow. De Jong stresses that the architecture is deliberately open‑ended, allowing creators to decide how much AI assistance they want and where to apply it.
“The AI must understand the context correctly, but the choice of integration stays with the user.” Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’s design. By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, the engine can communicate seamlessly with popular tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline.
“If the files are readable text, the AI can parse and manipulate them,” Brussee noted. “That openness solves a long‑standing pain point where proprietary engines act as closed islands, blocking smooth data exchange.” The broader conversation about AI in game development is often charged with hype and fear. Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience. Immens’s team tempers such expectations, viewing AI as a powerful instrument rather than a magic wand.
“One day we might see ‘click‑to‑game’ engines, but for now AI is a tool that makes creators better,” Valient said. Economic anxieties also swirl around the AI boom, with many questioning whether the sector is a bubble.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; only the unsustainable businesses vanished. Good technology and solid products endure.” He believes Immens is focusing on building a genuinely useful engine, using AI to accelerate development and inspire bigger dreams, regardless of market fluctuations. Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against over‑capitalisation, noting that too much money can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughed. The company remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers. De Jong explains that engine development is complex and cannot be solved by throwing a million engineers at it.
“A small, focused team can make deliberate decisions and iterate efficiently,” he said. “There’s a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry, and we must balance resources to hit that sweet spot.” Immens is currently building a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations: “We aimed for an end‑of‑year launch when we started in April, and we’re already twice as fast,” Brussee reported. Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push artistic boundaries, take risks, and deliver innovative experiences.
“We love games and want to see more daring, creative work,” Brussee concluded. “If our technology can help make that happen, that would be amazing."