For years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to tools for game creators, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases slated for 2025. While Godot has carved out a modest niche and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the duopoly of Unity and Unreal still dominates the market.
Enter Immens, a startup founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of modern game development, featuring stints at Epic Games (the makers of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. The trio believes there’s still room for a fresh engine, one that not only competes with the incumbents but also addresses the pain points that have begun to surface.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is ripe for a new platform. “A few years ago this idea didn’t exist,” he said. “With AI‑augmented programming, we can start building from scratch again, under tight guidance, and deliver full‑featured tools quickly.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ isn’t the “prompt‑and‑receive‑art” variety that dominates headlines.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets,” he explained. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers can add custom systems—say, a bespoke particle effect—without wrestling with opaque scripting layers.” This extensibility, he said, is meant to let creators extend the engine faster and with greater confidence.
The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑centric approach stems from a grim industry outlook. Brussee described the current climate as “rough,” noting that development costs keep climbing and studios are forced into a high‑risk cycle. “We need new, more efficient ways to work,” he asserted.
“If we can shrink teams, shorten timelines, and lower budgets, we reduce the existential threat to developers and their studios.” De Jong, the chief product officer, highlighted a broader trend of “standardisation and consolidation” in the engine space. While this has provided a solid foundation, he argues it also breeds complacency.
“The industry faces multiple challenges,” he said. “Continuing to do things the same way isn’t enough—we need genuine innovation, not just more of the same.” One of the criticisms De Jong levels at existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, often spending valuable time on workarounds rather than creativity. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, delivering an engine that molds itself to the developer’s workflow.
“Flexibility is key,” he noted. “You should be able to swap components, append new features, and craft tools that match your exact workflow—down to the shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set you need for a specific project.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can see what the engine is doing, trace its decision history, and ensure repeatable outcomes. This level of oversight, he believes, turns AI from a mysterious black box into a reliable assistant.
“Imagine needing to generate five characters with a particular trait,” he said. “Previously that might take weeks; now you could prototype it over coffee, reuse the tool a handful of times, and discard it when done—saving time and money.” The platform’s design deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. De Jong stresses that the architecture is open‑ended, allowing developers to decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
“We want the framework to be a canvas, not a prescription,” he said. “The AI should understand the developer’s intent, but the developer remains in the driver’s seat.” Interoperability is another cornerstone of Immens’s vision. By embracing open, text‑based standards, the engine can seamlessly exchange data with popular tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. “When files are human‑readable, any tool can parse them,” Brussee explained.
“That means the engine can talk to other software without the usual proprietary friction, creating smarter, more fluid pipelines.” The broader AI debate in game development is not without its skeptics. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the notion of “click‑to‑game” engines that could conjure GTA‑scale experiences from a single prompt. Immens’s team acknowledges that such extremes are speculative. Valient sees AI primarily as a productivity enhancer, not a replacement for human creativity.
“AI will make everyone better, not do the work for us,” he said, noting the technology’s current negative perception stems from its disruptive scale. Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with fears of a bubble and inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst; many companies fell, but the underlying technology endured. We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our development and expands our imagination.” Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments,” but the founders have kept the exact numbers private, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughed.
“Too much money can make you lazy.” The team itself is tiny—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers. This lean structure is intentional, allowing rapid decision‑making while avoiding the pitfalls of a massive, unwieldy organization.
De Jong explains the trade‑off: “Building an engine is complex; you can’t throw a million engineers at it and expect miracles. You need a focused core team to iterate, make hard choices, and hit the market window that AI is opening.” Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations. “When we launched in April, we thought we’d be demo‑ready by year‑end,” Brussee recalled. “We’re now twice as fast, which makes it hard to predict exact milestones.” Business‑model discussions are still in early stages. While Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” revenue share, Brussee says it’s too soon to commit to any specific arrangement.
Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering risk‑taking and artistic expression. “We love games and want to see more daring, creative experiences,” Brussee concluded. “If our technology can help developers build bolder titles, that would be amazing.”