For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, together powering roughly seventy percent of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While the open‑source Godot engine has enjoyed notable growth, and a handful of large studios continue to rely on proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, 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), a new AI‑enhanced engine that they believe can carve out a meaningful niche and raise the overall quality of the ecosystem. The founders bring a résumé that reads like a who’s‑who of modern game development. Brussee helped build the original Unity engine, De Jong was a lead designer on several titles at Guerrilla Games, and Valient spent years at Epic Games and Apple, contributing to the evolution of the Unreal platform. Their combined experience gives them a rare perspective on both the strengths and the blind spots of existing tools, and they are now applying that insight to a fresh approach.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because "the landscape has changed in ways that didn’t exist a few years ago." He points to the rapid maturation of AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that makes it possible to rebuild core systems from the ground up without the massive overhead that traditionally discouraged such ambition. "With AI‑supported coding, you can start from a clean slate and still get functional features quickly," he said.
"You retain tight guidance and control while accelerating the delivery of full‑featured capabilities." Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, stresses that the AI component is not about generating assets from a simple text prompt, a narrative that has become commonplace in recent media. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible.
"We designed the engine so that the AI can reason about large amounts of data and source code," he explained. "That means even a solo developer or a small team can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle effect or a unique physics module—without wrestling with opaque scripting layers. The AI helps you extend the engine faster, but the developer stays in the driver’s seat." The motivation behind Immens is also economic. Brussee describes the current climate as "rough" for creators, noting that development costs keep climbing and that many studios struggle to stay afloat.
"Games are becoming more expensive to make, and the risk to studios is growing," he said. "We need new workflows that reduce cost, shrink team size, and shorten time‑to‑market, so creators aren’t forced to gamble their livelihoods." De Jong, who serves as chief product officer, observes that the engine market has entered a phase of "standardisation and consolidation." While that has produced stable foundations, it has also stifled innovation. "The industry faces a series of challenges, and simply iterating on the same monolithic tools won’t solve them," he argued. "We need a paradigm shift—flexibility, modularity, and AI‑driven adaptability—to break out of the status quo." One of the pain points with current engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, limiting creative freedom. De Jong believes AI can flip this model on its head by allowing the engine to adapt to the developer rather than the other way around. "You should be able to swap components, append new ones, or rewrite parts of the toolchain to suit your project," he said. "Imagine building a custom editor that mirrors your personal workflow—exact shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set—so you spend less time fighting the tool and more time building the game." Valient acknowledges that AI is powerful but also volatile.
"If you don’t monitor it, it can go off the rails quickly," he warned. To mitigate this, Immens is being built with transparency and reproducibility in mind. Every AI‑driven action logs its intent and history, allowing developers to audit and repeat processes reliably. This level of control is crucial when the engine is used to generate content on the fly, such as creating a set of characters with specific traits in minutes rather than weeks.
Flexibility is a core tenet of Immens’s design philosophy. De Jong stresses that the engine does not impose a single workflow; instead, it offers a framework that can be shaped by the user. "You decide how much AI you want to incorporate and where," he said. "The architecture is open enough to let you build the tools you need, whether that means a fully AI‑augmented pipeline or a more traditional manual approach." Interoperability is another priority.
Immens adopts open standards for asset exchange, meaning that text‑based files can be read and manipulated by any compatible software. Brussee highlighted the advantage: "If the files are plain text, any tool—from Blender to Maya to a custom script—can ingest them. The AI can parse those files, modify them, and feed them back into the engine, creating a seamless loop of creativity. This openness is something many proprietary engines still lack." The broader conversation around AI in game development is polarized.
Some commentators hype "click‑to‑game" scenarios where a single prompt could generate a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, while others fear job displacement and artistic dilution. Immens’s team positions their technology as a sophisticated assistant rather than a replacement.
Valient believes AI will elevate the entire industry: "When AI makes everyone better at their craft, the end result is higher‑quality games across the board." Economic anxieties also linger, especially regarding the perception of an AI bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many startups will fail, the underlying technology—like the internet—persists and evolves. "AI isn’t disappearing; it’s becoming a permanent part of our toolkit. Our goal is to build a solid engine that leverages AI to accelerate development, not to chase hype." Funding for Immens remains modest and deliberately restrained.
The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed the exact amount, describing it as "reasonable." Brussee cautions against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency: "Startups need to stay scrappy. Too much money can make you lazy, and that’s the opposite of the lean, innovative culture we want." The company remains tiny—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—but this size is intentional. De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex undertaking that benefits from a focused, small team capable of making rapid decisions.
"You can’t throw a million developers at the problem and expect miracles," he said. "You need a tight core that iterates quickly, learns from mistakes, and adapts to market shifts." Immens is currently aiming to deliver a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a full editing workflow powered by generative AI.
The team expected this milestone by the end of the year, but they have already accelerated the timeline, planning to release the demo within the current month. Brussee notes that the speed of progress underscores the potential of AI‑assisted development: "We’re moving twice as fast as we initially projected, which makes it hard to predict exact timelines, but it’s an encouraging sign." Regarding the business model, Immens is still exploring options. While they appreciate Epic Games’ revenue‑share philosophy—"we succeed when you succeed"—they admit it’s too early to commit to a specific structure. The overarching ambition, however, is clear: to empower creators to take bigger creative risks without being hamstrung by cost or complexity.
In the words of Brussee, the ultimate hope is that Immens will help push the medium forward. "We love games and the rich artistic expression they enable. We want to see more daring, innovative experiences, and we believe a flexible, AI‑enhanced engine can be a catalyst for that future. That would be amazing."