For years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to tools for game creators, accounting for roughly 70 % of the titles that landed on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made noticeable strides recently and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been monopolised by the two giants. Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a fresh game engine built around artificial intelligence.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game development, with experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they believe there is still space for a new, more adaptable engine that can address the shortcomings of the current offerings. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is right for a novel engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. He explained that AI‑assisted programming now makes it possible to start from a clean slate again, offering “a lot of guidance and control” while delivering full‑featured functionality quickly.
Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that their use of AI is not about generating assets through prompts, but about constructing an engine architecture that is inherently extensible. “AI can reason about massive codebases and data sets,” he said. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or any other feature without being limited to superficial scripting.” The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic realities of game development.
Brussee described the environment as “rough,” noting that production costs keep climbing, making it harder for studios to stay viable. He asked whether new workflows could break the cycle of ever‑increasing budgets and larger teams. De Jong, the chief product officer, echoed this sentiment, observing that the engine market has become overly standardised and consolidated.
While that consolidation has provided a solid foundation, the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than more of the same. He warned that existing engines follow a monolithic approach, forcing developers to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. By contrast, an AI‑aware engine could adapt to the creator’s needs, allowing interchangeable components, custom tools, and personalised shortcuts tailored to each project. Valient acknowledged AI’s double‑edged nature: it is immensely powerful but can “go off the rails” if left unchecked.
Immens therefore places the user in the driver’s seat, offering full transparency over the engine’s actions, histories, and outcomes. This control enables developers to build bespoke tools for specific problems—like generating five characters with a particular trait—in a matter of minutes rather than weeks.
What once required costly, labour‑intensive pipelines can now be accomplished over a coffee break, with the resulting workflow being repeatable and disposable as needed. Flexibility is a core design principle for Immens. De Jong stressed that the engine does not enforce a single workflow; instead, it provides a framework that developers can shape, deciding how much AI to incorporate and where. Open standards also play a crucial role.
Brussee highlighted that text‑based file formats allow any tool—whether Blender, Maya, or a generative‑AI system—to read and write data seamlessly. By embracing open standards, Immens aims to create “smarter interfaces” that eliminate the isolation often seen in proprietary engines, fostering smoother integration across the entire development stack. The broader conversation about AI in games is heated.
Some critics on platforms like LinkedIn predict a future where a simple prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑style world, sparking fears of a “click‑to‑game” era. Immens’s team, however, views AI as a catalyst that will make developers better, not replace them.
Valient described AI’s current perception as “negative” because it is disrupting the industry at an unprecedented scale. De Jong added that AI, like any tool, can be used responsibly or misused, and it is the community’s duty to steer it toward productive outcomes. Economic anxieties also surface, with many questioning whether the AI boom is a bubble. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era, noting that while some companies will fall, the underlying technology persists.
He argued that Immens is focused on building a solid engine first; AI simply accelerates development and expands creative horizons. Whether the market is overheated remains uncertain, but the founders are confident that a well‑crafted product will survive any correction.
Funding for Immens is still in its early stages. The founders have secured “first commitments” but have not disclosed exact figures, only describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee warned against excessive capital, suggesting that too much money can breed complacency and erode the scrappy mindset essential for a startup. The team remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design, allowing rapid decision‑making and focused progress.
Currently, Immens is developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases an AI‑driven editing workflow. The goal is to release this demo within the month, a timeline that Brussee says is already twice as fast as originally projected when they began in April. As for the business model, Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy.
Ultimately, the trio hopes their engine will empower creators to push the boundaries of interactive entertainment. “We love games and want to see more risk‑taking, more creativity,” Brussee concluded.
“If our technology can help bring innovative experiences to life, that would be amazing.”