For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces shaping the video‑game development landscape, together accounting for roughly 70 % of the titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have enjoyed a surge in popularity, most large studios still lean on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—leaving the market largely monopolised by the two giants.
Enter Immens, a fledgling company founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑making powerhouses, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together they argue that the status quo is ripe for disruption and that a fresh engine, built with modern AI techniques, can fill a genuine gap. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels “right” because the tools that would have made a new engine impossible just a few years ago are now within reach. He believes AI‑assisted programming can restore the ability to start projects from a clean slate, providing “full functionality fast” while still giving developers granular control over the process. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, is quick to clarify that the AI they employ is not the kind that simply generates assets from a textual prompt.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. By designing the engine so that AI can reason about large amounts of code and data, 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 environment.
The goal is to let creators harness AI as a productivity multiplier, speeding up the extension and iteration of the engine itself. The motivation behind this ambitious project stems from what Brussee describes as a “rough” market climate. Game development costs continue to climb, making it increasingly difficult for small teams to break even. He argues that the industry needs new workflows that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and compress timelines, thereby reducing the existential risk faced by independent studios.
De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has produced a solid foundation, it has also stifled innovation. He warns that the current generation of engines follows a “monolithic approach,” forcing developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, delivering a platform that bends to the user’s needs rather than the other way around. Flexibility is a cornerstone of Immens’s philosophy.
De Jong envisions a system where developers can freely interchange components, append new modules, or overhaul interfaces to match their personal workflows. He illustrates this with a hypothetical scenario: a designer could build a custom toolbox that mirrors their own habits—specific shortcuts, UI layouts, and feature sets—tailored precisely to the demands of a particular project. Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword.
While it is “really powerful,” it can also “go off the rails” if left unchecked. To mitigate this risk, Immens is built with transparency in mind: users can see exactly what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable outcomes. This level of oversight enables developers to create throw‑away tools for one‑off tasks—such as generating five characters with a unique trait—in a matter of minutes, a process that previously might have taken weeks of manual labor. The architecture deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow.
De Jong stresses that teams can decide how much AI they want to incorporate and where it fits into their pipeline, as long as the underlying AI models understand the context correctly. By leveraging open standards and text‑based file formats, Immens ensures seamless interoperability with existing tools like Blender, Maya, or other generative applications.
Brussee notes that when files are human‑readable, any AI can parse and manipulate them, opening the door to smarter, more fluid integrations across the development stack. Public sentiment around AI in game creation is mixed. Some commentators on platforms such as LinkedIn hype the notion of “click‑to‑game” engines that could produce Grand Theft Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt. Immens’s founders temper these expectations, insisting that AI should be viewed as a tool that augments human creativity rather than replaces it.
Valient believes AI will make “big games and everything in between” possible because it elevates the capabilities of every developer involved. Economic concerns also linger.
Critics warn that the AI boom may be a bubble with inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, arguing that while many companies will fall, the underlying technology endures.
He emphasizes that Immens’s primary mission is to build a high‑quality engine; AI simply accelerates the development process and expands the horizon of what can be imagined. Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against over‑capitalisation, noting that an excess of cash can breed complacency and reduce the scrappy mindset essential for a startup tackling such a complex undertaking. The team itself is tiny—essentially the three founders plus a handful of helpers. They deliberately maintain this lean structure to preserve agility and focus.
De Jong explains that building an engine is a nuanced endeavour that cannot be rushed by simply throwing a large workforce at it; instead, a small, dedicated group can make thoughtful decisions and iterate efficiently. Immens is currently targeting a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a full editing workflow powered by generative AI.
The prototype is slated for release this month, and the development timeline has already outpaced initial expectations—what was projected to take until year‑end is now shaping up to arrive within months. Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach but admits it is too early to commit to any specific revenue structure.
The overarching ambition, however, is clear: to empower creators, lower barriers to entry, and ultimately push the medium forward. As Brussee puts it, “We love games, we love the complex artistic expressions they enable, and we want to see more risk‑taking and innovation. If Immens can be the foundation for that, it would be amazing.”