Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of all Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has gained traction in recent years and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the dominance of Unity and Unreal remains largely unchallenged.
Enter Immens, a startup founded by three seasoned industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑tech history, with stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they believe there is still room for a fresh engine, and that modern tools—especially AI‑assisted programming—can finally tip the scales. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is “right now” for a new engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago.
He explained that AI‑augmented coding lets developers start from a clean slate while still benefitting from extensive guidance and control. “You can build something with full functionality quickly,” he said, emphasizing speed without sacrificing robustness. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that their use of AI differs from the hype‑driven “prompt‑to‑content” narrative that dominates the conversation.
For Immens, AI is a structural aid: it helps design an extensible codebase that can be easily expanded by small teams or solo creators. “If a developer wants a custom particle system, they can add it directly to the engine,” Valient explained. “AI helps reason over large codebases, making those extensions faster and more reliable.” The motivation behind this AI‑powered engine is the increasingly hostile economics of game development.
Brussee described the current climate as “rough,” noting that production budgets are ballooning and the risk of failure is higher than ever. He asked whether the industry could find new, more efficient ways to work—methods that reduce cost, shrink team size, and accelerate timelines, thereby protecting studios from financial ruin. De Jong, Immens’ chief product officer, pointed out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While this has provided a solid foundation, he believes the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than incremental tweaks. “We’re at a point where continuing the same old processes won’t cut it,” he said. “We need a different approach.” One of De Jong’s criticisms of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers are forced to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, offering an engine that molds itself to the developer’s needs. “Flexibility is key,” he asserted. “You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and customize the interface exactly how you work.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked.
Immens therefore builds in transparency: users can see what the engine is doing, track its decision history, and ensure repeatable results. This level of control, he says, turns what used to be weeks‑long manual tasks into rapid, coffee‑break‑sized iterations. For example, generating five characters with specific traits can now be prototyped in minutes and discarded after use, dramatically lowering development costs.
The architecture of Immens is deliberately agnostic. It does not impose a single workflow or dictate how much AI should be employed; developers decide the degree of automation they want.
De Jong stressed that the framework must be robust enough for creators to plug in any amount of AI while still guaranteeing that the AI interprets instructions correctly. Interoperability is another cornerstone of Immens’ design. By embracing open, text‑based standards, the engine can read and write files that any other tool can understand.
“If you have a Blender model or a Maya animation, the engine can ingest it without a proprietary conversion layer,” Brussee explained. This openness contrasts sharply with many current engines, which act as closed ecosystems that hinder smooth data exchange.
The broader AI debate in game development is far from settled. Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, fueling fear and backlash. Immens’ team acknowledges that “click‑to‑game” concepts may eventually emerge, but they view AI primarily as an empowering tool rather than a magic wand. Valient believes AI will elevate the entire industry, making developers more capable rather than replacing them.
Economic concerns also loom large. Critics argue that AI‑focused startups are riding a speculative bubble, with inflated valuations and uncertain long‑term viability.
Valient countered that AI is not a passing fad: “When the dot‑com bubble burst, the internet didn’t disappear. The same will happen with AI—good products will survive, bad ones will fade.” He emphasized that Immens is focused on building a solid engine first, using AI to accelerate development and inspire bigger dreams. Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against over‑capitalization, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The company deliberately stays lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—to maintain agility and focus. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act.
De Jong explained that creating a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by throwing a million engineers at the problem. Instead, a small, dedicated group must iteratively make decisions and refine the product. At the same time, they must act quickly to capture the window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow.
The team expected this to take until the end of the year, but they are already two‑times ahead of schedule and plan to release the demo within the month. Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue strategy. Ultimately, he hopes Immens will enable creators to push the artistic and technical boundaries of games, fostering more risk‑taking, creativity, and innovation across the industry.
"That would be amazing," he concluded.