For years, Unity and Unreal have reigned supreme in game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have begun to gain traction, most major studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—leaving the market largely dominated by the two giants.
Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a fresh engine that they believe can carve out a meaningful niche and raise the bar for how games are built. The founders bring a résumé that reads like a who’s‑who of modern game development. Brussee cut his teeth at Epic Games, the creators of Unreal, and later helped shape titles at Guerrilla Games and Apple.
De Jong has overseen product strategy at several high‑profile studios, while Valient’s technical leadership spans work on cutting‑edge graphics pipelines and AI research. Their collective experience fuels confidence that they can challenge the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine. "A few years ago the idea of an AI‑augmented workflow didn’t exist in a practical sense," he said.
"Now, with AI‑supported programming, we can start building from the ground up again, under tight guidance, and get full‑featured tools up and running quickly." Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the kind that simply generates assets from a text prompt. Instead, it is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. "AI can reason over large codebases and data sets," he noted. "If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke animation tool without wrestling with a monolithic, closed‑source framework.
The AI acts as an accelerator for extension, not a replacement for thoughtful engineering." The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the harsh economic realities of modern game production. Brussee described the current climate as "rough," pointing out that development costs keep climbing, making it increasingly difficult for small teams to break even. "We need new ways of working that shrink budgets and timelines," he argued.
"If we can empower creators to do more with fewer hands, we reduce the risk to studios and individual livelihoods." De Jong echoed this sentiment, observing that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation has provided a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. "The industry faces a series of challenges, and simply iterating on existing tools isn’t enough. We need a fundamentally different approach, one that embraces flexibility rather than imposing a monolithic workflow," he said.
A key pain point with today’s engines is their reliance on proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. De Jong argued that AI can flip this script by allowing the engine to adapt to the developer’s needs. "You should be able to swap components, append new modules, or craft entirely custom tools that match your personal workflow," he explained. "Imagine a designer who can build a UI that mirrors their exact shortcuts and interface preferences, then share that with the rest of the team.
That level of personalization is what we aim to enable." Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked. "We’re building Immens so that users retain full control and visibility over what the AI does," he said. "Every action is logged, repeatable, and auditable, so you always know why a particular result was produced.
This transparency is crucial for reliable, production‑grade pipelines." The team envisions a workflow where a developer could, for example, generate five distinct characters with specific traits in the time it takes to sip coffee, then discard the temporary tool once the job is done. Previously such tasks might have taken weeks of manual tweaking; with AI‑assisted scripting, the same outcome becomes a rapid, iterative experiment. Immens is deliberately built to be agnostic about workflow. De Jong emphasized that the engine does not force a single development paradigm on its users.
"You decide how much AI you want to incorporate and where," he said. "Our architecture simply provides the scaffolding for you to make those choices, while ensuring the AI understands the context correctly." Interoperability is another cornerstone of the project. By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, Immens aims to play nicely with existing tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI suite. "When files are human‑readable, any system can parse them," Brussee noted.
"That opens the door for seamless integration across the entire creation pipeline, something many proprietary engines still struggle with." The broader conversation around AI in games is often charged with hype and fear. Some commentators on platforms like LinkedIn predict a future where entire AAA experiences can be conjured with a single prompt. Immens’s founders temper such expectations, positioning AI as a powerful assistant rather than a magical button. "Click‑to‑game engines might eventually exist, but for now we see AI as a tool that makes developers better, not a replacement for them," Valient said.
Economic concerns also loom large. Critics worry that AI‑focused startups are part of a speculative bubble. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era, arguing that while many companies will fall, the underlying technology will persist. "AI isn’t going away, just as the internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst.
Our goal is to build a solid engine that stands on its own merits, with AI accelerating development and expanding creative horizons," he asserted. Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the capital raise as "reasonable." Brussee cautioned against over‑funding, noting that excess cash can breed complacency.
The team prefers to stay lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—to maintain agility and focus. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act.
"You can’t throw a million engineers at an engine and expect it to materialize instantly," De Jong explained. "A small, dedicated group can iterate thoughtfully, make critical design decisions, and move faster. At the same time, we must be large enough to capture the market window opened by AI advances. It’s a trade‑off we’re constantly evaluating." Immens is currently targeting a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing flow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced original estimates—what was projected to take until year‑end is now on track for a spring launch. "We’re moving twice as fast as we expected," Brussee laughed, acknowledging the difficulty of predicting development speed in such uncharted territory.
Regarding the business model, Brussee mentioned admiration for Epic’s revenue‑share philosophy—"we succeed when you succeed"—but admitted it’s too early to lock in a definitive approach. The team remains focused on delivering a compelling product that proves its value to developers first.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will enable more daring, artistic games. "We love games as an expressive medium and want to see creators take bigger risks," Brussee concluded. "If our technology can lower barriers and spark innovation, that would be amazing for the whole industry."