For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, responsible for roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made noticeable strides recently, the majority of large studios still cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, leaving the market largely under the control of the two giants. Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have decided to carve out a new niche.
Their startup, Immens, aims to deliver a fresh game engine that leverages artificial intelligence to make development more accessible and affordable for smaller teams. The trio’s résumés read like a who's‑who of the gaming world: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, Apple, and other high‑profile studios. Their collective expertise fuels confidence that they can challenge the entrenched status quo.
In an 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 simply didn’t exist," he said. "Now, with AI‑supported programming, we can start from a clean slate and get functional features up and running much faster than before." Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI component isn’t about generating assets with a single prompt.
Instead, it focuses on making the engine itself highly extensible. "AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets," he noted. "If we design the architecture with that in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—like a bespoke particle effect—without being confined to a limited scripting layer.
The goal is to let creators extend the engine quickly and safely." The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic pressures of game development. Brussee described the market as "rough" and warned that production costs are spiraling upward. "It’s becoming increasingly difficult to break even," he said. "We need new, more efficient ways to work—processes that let smaller studios deliver high‑quality experiences without risking the entire company’s livelihood." De Jong, the chief product officer, observed that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While this has provided a stable foundation, he argues that the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than incremental improvements. "Continuing to do exactly what we’ve always done won’t solve the challenges we face," he asserted. "We need a different approach that embraces flexibility." One of the pain points with existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid toolchains.
De Jong believes AI can flip this script by delivering an engine that molds itself to the developer’s workflow. "You should be able to swap components, append new features, or build entirely custom tools that match your personal shortcuts and interface preferences," he explained.
"Imagine a developer who can craft a toolset precisely tuned to their project’s needs, without fighting the engine’s constraints." Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can behave unpredictably if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immens is being built with transparency and control at its core. "When you use the engine, you always know what it’s doing and why," he said.
"You can trace its actions, reproduce results, and create bespoke utilities that solve very specific problems—like generating five characters with a unique trait in minutes instead of weeks." Flexibility is a recurring theme. De Jong emphasized that Immens will not impose a single workflow on its users. "The architecture is deliberately open‑ended so you decide how much AI you want to involve and where you apply it," he noted.
"The AI must understand the context correctly, but the choice remains in the developer’s hands." Interoperability is another priority. By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens aims to play nicely with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, and other generative pipelines. "If the data is in a readable format, the AI can manipulate it directly," Brussee said. "This opens the door to seamless integration across the entire creation stack, something that many proprietary engines still struggle with." The conversation around AI in games is often polarized.
Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the idea of "click‑to‑game" experiences where a simple prompt spawns a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world. While Immens acknowledges that such radical automation might eventually be feasible, the team insists their technology is fundamentally a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. "AI will make everyone better, not replace them," Valient asserted.
"It’s disruptive, but that disruption can lead to higher quality and more innovative titles." Economic concerns also surface, especially the fear that AI‑centric startups are part of a speculative bubble. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies will fall, the underlying technology endures.
"AI isn’t disappearing; the internet didn’t vanish after the bubble burst," he said. "Our focus is on building a solid engine that leverages AI to accelerate development, regardless of market hype." Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its first round of commitments but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable." Brussee cautioned against over‑capitalization, noting that excess cash can breed complacency. "Startups need to stay scrappy," he laughed.
"Too much money can make you lazy." The company remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers. This intentional size allows for rapid decision‑making while avoiding the pitfalls of a massive, unwieldy team.
De Jong explained the balancing act: "Building an engine is complex, but you don’t need a million engineers. A focused group can iterate, make critical choices, and move quickly enough to capture the current window of opportunity created by AI advancements." Immens is currently polishing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The team aims to release the demo within the month, already having accelerated their timeline by a factor of two compared to initial estimates.
"We expected to be finished by year‑end, but we’re ahead of schedule," Brussee reported. Regarding the business model, Brussee mentioned admiration for Epic’s "you succeed when we succeed" licensing philosophy, but admitted it’s too early to commit to a specific approach.
The ultimate goal, he said, is to empower creators to push the medium forward. "We love games and want to see more daring, artistic expression," he concluded. "If Immens can help bring more innovative experiences to life, that would be amazing."