For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, powering roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have gained traction and some studios cling to proprietary tools such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been locked into the duopoly of Unity and Unreal. Enter Immersive, a startup founded by three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still space for a fresh engine that addresses the shortcomings of the status quo. 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 aim to challenge the entrenched giants with a platform built around artificial intelligence. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right: “There’s an opportunity now to build a new engine that didn’t exist a couple of years ago.” He sees AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst for starting projects from a clean slate, providing “a lot of guidance and control” while delivering full‑featured functionality quickly. Valient, Immersive’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the typical “prompt‑to‑content” gimmick.
Instead, the technology is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “AI can reason about massive codebases and data,” he said.
“If we design the engine with that in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle effect—without being limited to a handful of scripts.” This philosophy positions AI as a productivity multiplier rather than a magic wand. The motivation behind Immersive’s AI‑centric engine stems from the current economic climate of the games sector, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Development costs continue to climb, making it harder for studios to break even.
“We need new ways of working that lower cost, shrink team size, and accelerate timelines,” he argued. The goal is to reduce financial risk for creators and keep studios viable. De Jong, the company’s chief product officer, noted that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that stability has provided a solid foundation, he believes the industry now requires genuine innovation. “Continuing to do things exactly as we have before isn’t enough,” he said.
“We need a different approach, not just another monolithic engine.” One pain point he highlighted is the rigidity of existing engines, which force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and workflows. With AI, Immersive envisions an engine that molds itself to the developer’s needs. “It has to be flexible—swap components, append new tools, modify interfaces,” De Jong explained. “I can build a toolset that matches my personal workflow down to the shortcuts and UI layout, and my team can do the same for their projects.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked.
Immersive therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can see exactly what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable results. This level of oversight makes it possible to generate assets—like a set of five characters with specific traits—in minutes rather than weeks, dramatically cutting costs.
Flexibility is baked into Immersive’s design philosophy. De Jong stressed that the platform does not enforce a single workflow or a prescribed amount of AI usage. “You decide how much AI you want, where you want it, and the underlying architecture supports those choices,” he said.
The engine also adopts open standards, allowing seamless interoperability with tools such as Blender, Maya, or other generative pipelines. “When files are text‑based, any program can read them. The AI can parse those files and act on them, which means we can plug in a wide range of existing software without the usual friction,” Brussee added.
The broader conversation around AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the idea of “click‑to‑game” experiences that could produce Grand Theft Auto‑scale worlds from a single prompt. Immersive’s team acknowledges the hype but treats AI as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity.
“AI will make everyone better, but the games themselves will still be crafted by people,” Valient said. De Jong echoed this, calling for responsible, productive use of AI rather than fearing its disruptive potential.
Economic concerns also swirl around AI, with many questioning whether the sector is a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear, even though many companies failed. “We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our development and lets us dream bigger,” he remarked.
Whether the market is inflated remains uncertain, but Immersive is not betting on a quick windfall. Funding details are still vague.
Immersive has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The team deliberately remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—to stay scrappy and make thoughtful decisions. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act. De Jong explained that building an engine is complex; you can’t simply throw a million engineers at it.
A small, focused group can iterate, make hard choices, and stay aligned with the market window that AI is opening. “We need enough resources to hit that window, but not so many that we lose agility,” he said.
Immersive is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The team aimed to have it ready by year‑end but has already accelerated the timeline, planning a public demo within the month.
Brussee noted that they are moving twice as fast as initially projected, making timeline predictions difficult. Regarding the business model, Immersive admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy. Ultimately, Brussee hopes the engine will enable creators to push the medium forward, fostering more artistic risk‑taking and innovation.
“We love games and want to see more creativity. If our tech can help make that happen, that would be amazing,” he concluded.