For years, Unity and Unreal have held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly seventy percent of the titles released on Steam in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed notable growth recently and some large publishers 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 a new venture called Immens, convinced that there is still room for a fresh engine and, more importantly, for a better way of building games. The founders’ résumés read like a who‑is‑who of the sector: 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 finally right to create a platform that simply did not exist a few years ago. \"With AI‑assisted programming, we can start from a clean slate again,\" he said. \"Guided by intelligent tools, developers can assemble fully‑functional systems much more quickly.\" Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they are leveraging is not the sort of generative, prompt‑driven magic that dominates headlines. Instead, their AI is built into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible.
\"AI can reason over massive code and data sets. If we design the engine with that in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or any other feature without wrestling with opaque scripting languages,\" he explained.
The goal is to let creators use AI as a productivity accelerator, not as a replacement for thoughtful engineering. A major driver for this initiative is the increasingly hostile economics of game development. Brussee described the current climate as \"rough\" and warned that production budgets are ballooning, making it harder for small teams to survive.
\"We need new workflows that cut costs and speed up delivery, so studios aren’t gambling their livelihoods on a single, massive project,\" he said. The trio believes that by harnessing AI‑enhanced tools, developers can achieve high‑quality output with fewer hands and less time.
De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, pointed out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has provided a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. \"The industry faces a host of challenges, and merely iterating on the status quo won’t solve them,\" he argued.
\"We need a paradigm shift—flexibility, modularity, and the ability to tailor the engine to a specific project's needs.\" Current engines often impose a \"monolithic\" approach: developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. De Jong envisions an engine that bends to the user’s will.
\"Imagine being able to swap modules, append new functionality, or craft bespoke tools that match your personal workflow—exact shortcuts, interfaces, and features for your team’s unique requirements,\" he said. Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked. Immens is therefore designed to keep users in the driver’s seat.
\"You always see what the engine is doing, you have a complete history, and you can reproduce results reliably,\" he noted. This transparency allows developers to create disposable, task‑specific tools—like a one‑off character generator that can be discarded after use—without the massive overhead that traditional pipelines demand. Flexibility is baked into Immens’s architecture.
The engine does not enforce a single workflow or a predetermined amount of AI assistance; teams can decide how much automation they want and where to apply it. De Jong stressed that the framework must be robust enough for the AI to understand context correctly, ensuring that automation complements rather than complicates the creative process. Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’s strategy.
By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, the engine can communicate seamlessly with tools like Blender, Maya, or other generative software. \"When files are readable as plain text, any system can parse them.
The AI can then manipulate those assets directly,\" Brussee explained. This openness counters the tendency of many engines to become isolated islands that struggle to integrate with the broader ecosystem.
The broader AI debate in the gaming sector is heated. Some pundits on platforms such as LinkedIn hype the notion of \"click‑to‑game\" experiences, suggesting that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world. Immens’s team acknowledges that such a future might be possible someday, but they view AI primarily as a tool that augments human creators. \"Great games will still be made by people, with AI making everyone more capable,\" Valient said, noting that the technology’s disruptive reputation stems from its unprecedented scale.
Economic concerns also loom large. Critics label the AI boom a bubble with inflated valuations, yet Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear, only the over‑hyped businesses did.
He argues that solid products built on genuine technology will endure, and Immers is focused on delivering a high‑quality engine that leverages AI to speed up iteration and expand creative horizons. Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the team believes that, as with any transformative technology, the useful applications will persist.
Funding for Immens remains modest and deliberately restrained. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the target amount as \"reasonable\". Brussee cautioned against over‑capitalisation, noting that excess cash can breed complacency and erode the scrappy mentality needed for a lean startup. The company is currently a small operation—just the three founders plus a handful of collaborators.
This intentional minimalism reflects their belief that an engine’s complexity does not scale linearly with team size. \"You can’t throw a million developers at a codebase and expect it to magically click,\" De Jong said. The challenge is to assemble a focused team that can seize the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise without bloating the organisation.
Immens is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The team aims to release this demo within the month, a timeline that already outpaces their original end‑of‑year projection by a factor of two. Brussee admitted that predicting milestones is difficult when the technology moves so quickly.
Business model discussions are still in early stages. While Immens admires Epic Games’ \"we succeed when you succeed\" licensing approach, they have not yet committed to any specific revenue structure. The founders remain focused on building a tool that empowers developers, trusting that a sustainable model will emerge as the product matures. Ultimately, the trio hopes Immens will revitalize the medium they love.
\"We’re passionate about games as an art form and want to see more risk‑taking and experimentation,\" Brussee concluded. \"If our engine can lower barriers and inspire new kinds of creativity, that would be a dream come true.\"