For years, Unity and Unreal have ruled the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of all Steam releases projected for 2025. While Godot has enjoyed notable growth and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine, for example—the market has largely been a duopoly.
Into this entrenched arena step three seasoned veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient, the founders of Immens. Their résumés read like a who's‑who of the industry, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together they believe there is still space for a fresh engine, and more importantly, for a fundamentally better way to build games. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform that simply didn’t exist a few years ago.
“With AI‑assisted programming, you can start building from scratch again,” he said. “With the right guidance and control, you can create a fully functional engine quickly.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that their use of artificial intelligence is not the hype‑driven “prompt‑to‑content” model that dominates headlines. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets,” he noted.
“If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system, a bespoke animation pipeline, or any other feature without being confined to a limited scripting layer.” This approach, Valient argued, empowers creators to extend the engine rapidly and safely. The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑centric design is the grim reality of today’s game market.
Brussee described the environment as “rough,” pointing out that development costs keep climbing, making it harder for small teams to survive. “We need new, more efficient ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he said. “Otherwise studios risk everything on a single title.” De Jong, the company’s chief product officer, echoed this sentiment, observing that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While standardization provides a solid foundation, the industry now demands innovation, not more of the same. He criticized the current “monolithic” nature of major engines, where developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. With AI, De Jong envisions an engine that bends to the user’s needs, offering interchangeable components, customizable tools, and a workflow that mirrors each creator’s personal preferences. “I can build a toolset that matches my exact shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set for my team’s project,” he explained.
Valient acknowledged AI’s power but warned of its volatility. “If you don’t watch it, it can go off the rails quickly,” he said. Immens therefore places control firmly in the hands of the user: the engine logs every decision, making processes repeatable and transparent. This traceability allows developers to generate, test, and discard tools on the fly—imagine designing five unique characters over a coffee break rather than spending weeks on manual iteration.
Flexibility is a core tenet of Immens. De Jong emphasized that the engine does not impose a single workflow; users decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
The architecture is deliberately open, supporting text‑based file formats that any tool can read. “When files are plain text, any program—including AI—can parse and manipulate them,” Brussee said. This openness facilitates seamless integration with industry staples like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline, fostering a “smarter interface” across the development stack. The broader conversation about AI in games is polarized.
Some commentators on LinkedIn hype a future where a prompt could spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑style world instantly. Immens’s team tempers those expectations, viewing AI as a powerful tool rather than a magic button.
“One day we might see ‘click‑to‑game’ engines, but for now AI is a catalyst that makes creators better,” Valient asserted. De Jong added that, like any technology, AI can be misused, but the responsibility lies with developers to apply it ethically. Economic concerns also swirl around AI, with many fearing a bubble of over‑valued startups. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear, but many over‑hyped companies fell away, leaving the solid ones to thrive.
Immens aims to be one of those lasting solutions—building a high‑quality engine that leverages AI to speed development and broaden creative horizons, regardless of market fluctuations. Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the capital as “reasonable.” Brussee warned against excess cash, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The company deliberately stays lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—believing that a small, focused team can make smarter decisions and move faster. Currently, Immens is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month. The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations: what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time. Brussee admitted that predicting exact milestones is challenging when AI accelerates progress.
As for the business model, Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admits it’s too early to finalize revenue strategies. The ultimate goal, according to Brussee, is to empower creators to push the medium forward. “We love games as an art form and want to see more risk‑taking and creativity,” he said. “If our technology helps bring more innovative experiences to players, that would be amazing.”