For years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, powering roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While the open‑source Godot engine has enjoyed notable growth and some studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been a duopoly.
Against this backdrop, three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immersive (Immens) with the conviction that there is still room for a fresh, better‑designed engine. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game development: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform, noting that “a few years ago this kind of engine didn’t exist.” He believes AI‑assisted programming now lets developers start from a clean slate and achieve full functionality much more quickly, provided they retain strong guidance and control over the process.
Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, stresses that the AI they employ is not the “prompt‑to‑output” variety that dominates headlines. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “AI can reason about large codebases and data sets,” he says.
“If we design the engine with that in mind, even solo creators or tiny teams can add custom systems—like a bespoke particle effect—without being confined to a limited scripting layer.” This philosophy aims to let developers extend the engine faster, using AI as a productivity partner rather than a magic wand. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of game development. Brussee describes the environment as “rough,” pointing out that production budgets keep swelling, making it harder for small studios to survive. He asks whether new workflows can break the cycle of ever‑increasing costs, enabling teams to ship games faster, with fewer people, and on tighter budgets.
De Jong, the chief product officer, adds that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation provides a solid foundation, the industry now needs genuine innovation, not just incremental improvements. One of De Jong’s criticisms of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which can stifle creativity. With AI, Immens aims to become an engine that molds itself to the developer’s needs. “It has to be flexible,” he explains.
“You should be able to swap components, append new ones, or build entirely custom tools that match your workflow, shortcuts, and interface preferences.” This level of personalization is intended to let creators craft exactly the tools they require for each project. Valient acknowledges that AI, while powerful, can also veer off course if left unchecked.
Immens therefore gives users full visibility into what the AI is doing, preserving repeatability and allowing developers to audit the engine’s decisions. He illustrates the benefit with a practical example: creating five characters with a specific trait used to take weeks of planning; now, with AI‑assisted tools, a designer could sketch the concept over coffee, generate the assets, and reuse the workflow as needed—dramatically reducing cost and time. Flexibility is a core design pillar. De Jong stresses that Immens does not force a single workflow on its users; instead, the framework and architecture are deliberately open, letting teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
The engine also embraces open standards, ensuring seamless interoperability with common tools like Blender, Maya, or other generative software. Brussee notes that text‑based file formats allow any AI to read and manipulate data, fostering smarter interfaces across the development stack. The broader industry conversation about AI is polarized. Some hype‑driven voices claim that a simple prompt could soon generate Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑level experiences, sparking fear of “click‑to‑game” solutions.
Immens’s founders see AI as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. Valient argues that AI will make developers better, while De Jong reminds listeners that any technology can be misused, and it is the community’s responsibility to apply it responsibly. Economic concerns also linger, with many questioning whether the AI boom is a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many startups vanished, the underlying internet persisted and the survivors thrived because they built solid products.
Immens aims to be one of those lasting solutions: a high‑quality engine accelerated by AI, designed for the long term. The team remains cautious about funding; they have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed amounts, preferring a “reasonable” sum that avoids the complacency that can accompany excess capital. Currently, Immens is a lean operation—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers.
They believe a small, focused team can make better decisions and iterate faster than a massive group. De Jong explains the delicate balance: building a complex engine requires expertise, but throwing a million developers at the problem won’t guarantee success. Timing is also critical; the next few years present a window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry. The company is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing flow, slated for release this month.
Brussee admits they originally expected the demo by year‑end, but they are already moving at double that speed. As for the business model, Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach, yet it remains too early to commit to a specific strategy.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the boundaries of interactive art. “We love games and want to see more risk‑taking and creativity,” says Brussee. “If our technology helps spark innovation, that would be amazing.”