For many years the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines—Unity and Unreal—responsible for roughly seventy percent of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While the open‑source Godot has made notable strides recently, the majority of larger studios still cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine. In short, the engine market has long seemed locked into a duopoly. Enter Immersive Innovations, better known as 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 game‑tech history, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. The trio believes there is still space for a fresh engine—one that not only competes with the incumbents but also addresses the systemic problems that have begun to choke creativity and profitability. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform.
“A few years ago the idea of building a modern engine from the ground up seemed unrealistic,” he said. “Now, with AI‑assisted programming, we can start from scratch again and still deliver a fully‑featured product quickly, under tight guidance and control.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the “prompt‑and‑receive‑art” variety that dominates headlines. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “Our AI can reason about massive codebases and data sets,” he noted.
“If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without wrestling with opaque scripting layers. The AI simply accelerates the extension process.” The motivation behind this AI‑centric approach stems from the harsh economic reality of modern game development.
Brussee described the current market as “rough,” emphasizing that production budgets are ballooning while the margin for error shrinks. “Creating a successful game is becoming increasingly expensive,” he warned. “We need new workflows that cut costs, reduce team size, and speed up iteration, so studios aren’t forced to gamble their entire livelihood on a single title.” De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, observed that the engine space has entered a phase of “standardisation and consolidation.” While this has given developers a solid foundation, it has also led to a monolithic mindset where studios must conform to rigid, proprietary file formats and toolchains. “The industry needs innovation, not more of the same,” he argued.
“We want an engine that bends to the developer’s needs, not the other way around.” Flexibility is therefore a core design pillar. De Jong illustrated how a developer could tailor the interface, shortcuts, and toolsets to match personal workflows. “Imagine being able to swap out a subsystem, append a new editor, or craft a bespoke pipeline that mirrors exactly how your team works,” he said.
“That level of customisation is what we’re building.” Valient also cautioned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked. Immens therefore embeds transparency and control into every AI‑driven feature.
Users can review the engine’s decision history, ensuring reproducibility and preventing the “black‑box” syndrome that haunts many AI products. This auditability allows creators to generate, test, and discard tools on the fly—say, a rapid character‑generation script that can be used a handful of times and then retired—without incurring the massive overhead that traditional pipelines demand. Another strategic choice is the adoption of open standards. By relying on text‑based file formats, Immens enables seamless interoperability with industry‑standard tools such as Blender, Maya, and other generative pipelines.
“When files are human‑readable, any AI can parse and manipulate them,” Brussee explained. “This openness breaks the isolation that many engines enforce and lets developers plug in the best tools for the job, fostering a smarter, more connected ecosystem.” The conversation around AI in games is often polarized. Some commentators on platforms like LinkedIn hype the notion of “click‑to‑game” engines that could conjure Grand Theft Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt. Immens’s founders temper such hype, positioning AI as an augmentative tool rather than a replacement for human creativity.
“AI will make everyone better, not replace them,” Valient asserted. “It carries negative connotations now because it’s disrupting at a scale we’ve never seen, but responsible use can drive genuine artistic progress.” Economic anxieties also swirl, with critics dubbing the AI boom a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many startups will fail, the underlying technology endures.
“AI isn’t disappearing; it’s becoming the internet of our time,” he said. “Our focus is on building a solid engine that leverages AI to accelerate development, not on chasing inflated valuations.” Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, emphasizing a deliberate, lean approach. Brussee warned against over‑capitalisation, noting that excess cash can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughed.
“A small, focused team can make better decisions than a bloated organisation.” Indeed, the company currently consists of the three founders plus a handful of helpers. This compact structure is intentional: building an engine is a complex, nuanced task that benefits from tight coordination rather than a massive workforce. De Jong highlighted the balancing act between assembling enough talent to meet a narrow market window and avoiding the temptation to throw “a million people” at the problem. Immens is 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 original expectations—what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time. Brussee attributes this acceleration to the very AI‑enhanced processes they are championing. Regarding the business model, Brussee hinted at an alignment with Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admitted that concrete plans are still forming. The ultimate goal, he concluded, is to empower creators to push the medium forward.
“We love games and the complex artistic expression they embody,” he said. “We hope our technology fuels more risk‑taking, more creativity, and ultimately more innovation in the industry. That would be amazing.”