Unity and Unreal have long been the go‑to tools for game creators, accounting for roughly 70 % of Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has carved out a niche and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been a duopoly. Into this landscape step three industry veterans, Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient, who have banded together under the banner Immens to build a fresh, AI‑enhanced engine.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of modern game development, spanning Epic Games (the makers of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and Apple, and they believe the status quo still has room for improvement. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is right for a new platform that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. “With AI‑assisted programming you can start building from scratch again,” he explained.
“Guided, yet flexible, tools let you achieve full functionality far more quickly than before.” Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the hype‑driven “prompt‑to‑asset” variety that dominates headlines. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
“If we design the codebase with AI in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without wrestling with opaque scripting layers,” he said. “The goal is to let creators extend the engine faster, using AI as a reasoning assistant rather than a magic wand.” The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic pressures of game development. Brussee described the market as “rough,” noting that production costs keep climbing and small studios are increasingly vulnerable.
“We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and shorten timelines,” he asserted. “Otherwise developers risk their livelihoods and studios’ survival.” De Jong, the company’s chief product officer, echoed this sentiment, pointing out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that consolidation provides a solid foundation, he believes the industry now demands genuine innovation. “Continuing to do exactly what we’ve always done won’t solve the challenges we face,” he said. “We need a different approach—one that embraces flexibility and adaptability.” A key criticism of existing engines, according to De Jong, is their monolithic nature. Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
Immens aims to flip that script by delivering an engine that bends to the user’s workflow. “You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and craft interfaces that match your personal or team preferences,” he explained. “Imagine a toolset built around your exact shortcuts, features, and UI layout—tailored for the project at hand.” Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility.
“If you’re not vigilant, the system can go off the rails quickly,” he warned. To mitigate this, Immens is being built with transparency and control at its core.
Users will always see what the engine is doing, have access to its decision history, and be able to reproduce results reliably. This level of oversight, he argues, turns AI from a black box into a trustworthy collaborator.
The practical benefits of such a workflow are striking. Tasks that once required weeks of manual labor—like generating five characters with specific traits—could now be prototyped over a coffee break.
The resulting tools can be reused a handful of times and then discarded, dramatically reducing cost. “That kind of rapid iteration was prohibitively expensive before,” Valient noted. “Now it’s a realistic part of everyday development.” Immens is deliberately engineered to avoid imposing a single workflow. De Jong stresses that the framework and architecture are open‑ended, allowing teams to decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
“We want the engine to be a canvas, not a preset picture,” he said. “The AI must understand the developer’s intent, but the developer remains in the driver’s seat.” Interoperability is another cornerstone of Immens’ design. By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, the engine can seamlessly communicate with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline.
“When files are human‑readable, any software can parse them,” Brussee explained. “That openness enables smarter interfaces across the entire toolchain, something proprietary engines have historically resisted.” The broader conversation about AI in games is polarized. Some pundits on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience.
While Immens’ founders acknowledge the eventual possibility of “click‑to‑game” solutions, they view AI primarily as an accelerator for human creativity. “AI will make everyone better, not replace them,” Valient asserted.
“It’s a tool that, like any technology, can be misused, but it also holds the potential to lift the entire medium.” Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with critics labeling the sector a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet persisted and flourished.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine first,” he said. “AI helps us iterate faster and dream bigger, but the core product must stand on its own merits.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments,” though the founders have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against over‑capitalization, warning that excess cash can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughed.
“Too much money can make you lazy.” The team itself is intentionally lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers. De Jong explains that a massive workforce would not necessarily accelerate engine development; nuanced decisions require a small, focused group. Yet they also recognize a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry.
Balancing sufficient resources with a tight, agile team is the current challenge. Immens is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month. The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations: “We aimed for an end‑of‑year milestone when we started in April, and we’re already twice as fast,” Brussee reported.
Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing philosophy but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific approach. Ultimately, the trio hopes Immens will empower creators to push the artistic and technical boundaries of games. “We love games and want to see more daring, creative experiences,” Brussee concluded.
“If our technology can help developers take bigger risks and innovate, that would be amazing."