For years, Unity and Unreal have held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine, for example—the duopoly of Unity and Unreal still dominates the market. Into this environment step three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who have launched Immersive (Immens) with the conviction that a fresh engine can both exist and improve upon the status quo. 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.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is now right for a new engine, one that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. He believes AI‑assisted programming can rekindle the ability to build tools from the ground up, offering “full functionality fast” under a framework that still gives developers tight control.
Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that their use of AI diverges from the hype‑driven “prompt‑to‑content” narrative. Instead, AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “AI can reason over large codebases and data sets,” he explains. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—like a bespoke particle effect—without being confined to limited scripting layers.” This vision positions AI as an accelerator for extension rather than a replacement for human creativity.
The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the harsh economics of modern game development. Brussee describes the current climate as “rough,” noting that production costs keep climbing, making it increasingly difficult for studios to survive. He asks whether new workflows can break this cycle, allowing games to be built with smaller crews, tighter budgets, and shorter timelines, thereby reducing the existential risk to developers and their studios. De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become “standardised and consolidated.” While that consolidation provides a solid base, it also stifles innovation.
He argues that the industry now faces multiple challenges—rising costs, talent shortages, and creative fatigue—and that merely iterating on existing tools won’t solve them. “We need innovation, not further standardisation,” he asserts, emphasizing a shift toward flexibility. One of the pain points De Jong highlights is the monolithic nature of current engines. Developers often have to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, limiting their ability to tailor tools to specific project needs.
With AI, Immens aims to flip that script: the engine should adapt to the developer, not the other way around. De Jong envisions a system where users can interchange, append, or modify components at will, crafting interfaces, shortcuts, and workflows that match their personal or team preferences. Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility.
He stresses that Immens is being built to keep users in the driver’s seat, with full transparency over what the AI does and why. This accountability ensures repeatable results and allows developers to create throw‑away tools for specific tasks—like generating five uniquely‑traited characters in a coffee‑break session—without incurring massive costs.
Flexibility is baked into Immens’s core philosophy. De Jong stresses that the engine does not impose a single workflow; instead, it offers a modular architecture that lets teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The goal is to provide a framework that can be shaped to fit any development style while ensuring the AI understands the context correctly.
Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’s design. By leveraging open, text‑based standards, the engine can seamlessly exchange data with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, or other generative platforms. Brussee notes that when files are human‑readable, any AI can parse and manipulate them, opening the door to smarter interfaces across the entire toolchain. This approach counters the “closed‑off” nature of many existing engines, which often resist integration with external standards.
The broader conversation around AI in games is polarized. Some pundits on LinkedIn hype the prospect of “click‑to‑game” experiences that could produce Grand Theft Auto‑level worlds from a single prompt. Immens’s team acknowledges that such a future might one day be feasible, but they view AI primarily as a catalyst that enhances human creators rather than replaces them.
Valient says AI is currently “disrupting at a scale nobody has seen,” yet it ultimately makes developers better, not obsolete. Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with critics warning of a bubble of over‑valued startups.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet persisted and thrived. He believes Immens is focused on building a genuinely useful engine; AI simply accelerates its development and expands its creative horizon. Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the team is committed to delivering value regardless of external hype. Funding details remain vague.
Immens has secured its “first commitments,” but the founders have not disclosed the exact amount, describing it only as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excessive capital, warning that abundant cash can breed complacency and diminish the scrappy mindset essential for a startup. The company remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design, to retain agility and focus. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act. De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by simply throwing a million developers at the problem.
A small, dedicated team can make deliberate decisions and iterate thoughtfully, while still seizing the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immens is currently targeting a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month. The timeline has already outpaced initial expectations: what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving roughly twice as fast. Brussee admits that predicting exact schedules remains challenging given the rapid pace of development.
The business model is still evolving. While Immens appreciates Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” revenue sharing philosophy, it is too early to commit to a specific approach. Ultimately, Brussee hopes Immens will enable games that push the medium forward—more artistic expression, greater risk‑taking, and fresh innovation. “We love games,” he says.
“We want to see more creativity and risk‑taking. If our technology can help bring that to life, that would be amazing.”