For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to platforms for game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles that landed on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have begun to attract attention, the majority of large studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example.
In short, the engine market has long seemed locked in place. Enter Immers, the brainchild of three seasoned industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game development, with stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they believe there is still room for a fresh engine, and more importantly, room for a better way of building games. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is now ripe for a new engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago.
“With AI‑assisted programming, you can start building from scratch again,” he said. “Guided by smart tools, you can achieve full‑fledged functionality much faster than before.” Valient, Immers’ chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they are integrating is not the kind that generates entire worlds from a single prompt.
Instead, it is a reasoning engine that makes the underlying codebase highly extensible. “If we design the engine with AI in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without being confined to a limited scripting layer,” he explained. “The AI helps you extend the engine quickly, but you remain in control of what you’re building.” The motivation behind this AI‑centric approach stems from the current state of the games market, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Development costs continue to climb, making it harder for small teams to break even.
“We need new ways of working that lower risk, shrink budgets, and let creators ship faster with fewer people,” he said. De Jong echoed this sentiment, noting that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated. While standardisation provides a solid foundation, the industry now demands genuine innovation rather than incremental tweaks.
One of the biggest pain points with existing engines, according to De Jong, is their monolithic nature. Studios must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which can stifle creativity. He envisions an engine that bends to the developer’s will, allowing interchangeable modules, custom tools, and personalized shortcuts. “I should be able to craft a toolset that mirrors my own workflow—exact shortcuts, UI layout, and features—so my team can work exactly the way we need to,” he said.
Valient is quick to acknowledge AI’s limitations. While powerful, the technology can “go off the rails” if left unsupervised.
Immers therefore embeds transparency into its workflow: developers can see what the AI is doing, review its history, and reproduce results reliably. This visibility, he argues, turns AI from a mysterious black box into a dependable assistant. For instance, generating five characters with specific traits used to take weeks; now a designer could sketch the idea over coffee, let the AI produce the assets, and reuse the tool as needed—dramatically cutting cost and time. Flexibility is baked into Immers’ architecture.
The engine does not enforce a single workflow; instead, it offers a framework that lets users decide how much AI to employ and where. De Jong stresses that the underlying code must be understandable so the AI can interpret it correctly, ensuring that the system remains both powerful and predictable. Interoperability is another cornerstone.
By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immers can communicate seamlessly with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑art pipeline. “When files are plain text, any program can read them,” Brussee noted. “The AI can parse those files, manipulate them, and feed them back into the engine. This openness eliminates the siloed nature of many current engines and creates a smarter, more connected workflow.” The broader conversation around AI in game development is heated.
Some pundits on LinkedIn hype the idea of “click‑to‑game” experiences, claiming that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world. Immers’ team is more measured. They acknowledge that such a vision might eventually be possible, but for now they view AI strictly as a tool that enhances human creators, not replaces them.
Valient summed it up: “AI is making everyone better; the negative perception comes from the scale of disruption we’ve never seen before.” Economic concerns also loom. Critics warn of an AI bubble with inflated valuations. Valient counters that, like the dot‑com era, the technology itself isn’t disappearing; many companies will fail, but the valuable ones will endure.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine first. AI simply accelerates our development and lets us dream bigger,” he said.
Funding remains modest. Immers has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excess capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The team remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explains the trade‑off: a massive team doesn’t guarantee success in such a complex undertaking; a small, focused group can iterate faster and make deliberate decisions, especially during the narrow window of opportunity created by AI’s rise. Currently, Immers is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing flow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations: what they thought would take until year‑end is now arriving in weeks. As for the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific approach. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower developers to push the medium forward, fostering more creativity, risk‑taking, and artistic expression.
“We love games and want to see the art form evolve,” Brussee concluded. “If our technology can help spark the next wave of innovation, that would be amazing.”