For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, powering roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides recently and large studios continue to rely on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been a duopoly controlled by Unity and Unreal. Enter Immens, a startup founded by three seasoned veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry, with experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they argue that the current landscape still has room for a fresh engine that addresses the shortcomings of the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform. "There’s an opportunity now to build an engine that didn’t exist a couple of years ago," he said.
He believes AI‑assisted programming can revive the notion of building a game from the ground up without the massive overhead that traditionally accompanies engine development. "With a lot of guidance and control, you can create something that delivers full functionality quickly," he added. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they employ is not about generating content from a single prompt.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. "AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets. If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can extend it beyond simple scripting.
Want a custom particle system? You can plug it in directly," he explained. This approach aims to let developers harness AI to accelerate extensions rather than replace the creative process. The motivation behind this AI‑powered engine stems from the bleak economics of modern game development.
Brussee describes the current climate as "rough," noting that production costs keep climbing, making it harder for small studios to survive. "We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and speed up timelines, so developers aren’t gambling their livelihoods on a single hit," he argued. De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While this has given developers a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. "The industry faces many challenges, and simply repeating old methods won’t solve them. We need genuine innovation, not just more of the same," he said. One of De Jong’s critiques of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers often must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. With AI, Immens intends to flip that script, offering an engine that adapts to the developer’s workflow. "It must be flexible—interchangeable, appendable, modifiable. I can craft tools that match my personal shortcuts, UI preferences, and project requirements," he described.
Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. "If you don’t monitor it, it can go off the rails quickly," he warned.
Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can see what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable results. This level of oversight enables rapid prototyping—imagine designing five distinct characters with specific traits over a coffee break, then discarding the temporary tool after use. Such workflows were once prohibitively expensive.
Flexibility is baked into Immens’s design philosophy. The engine does not impose a single workflow; developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
De Jong stresses that the underlying framework must be robust enough to support varied approaches while guaranteeing that the AI interprets instructions accurately. Open standards also play a crucial role. By relying on text‑based file formats, Immens can interoperate with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative asset pipeline.
"When files are readable as plain text, any AI can parse and manipulate them. This openness bridges the gap that many proprietary engines have left uncrossed," Brussee noted.
The broader gaming community remains divided on AI’s role. Some hype it as a shortcut to Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑level experiences with a single prompt, while others fear a backlash. Immens’s team envisions a future where "click‑to‑game" engines exist, but they stress that AI should remain a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. Valient believes AI will elevate developers, making them more capable, even if the technology currently carries negative connotations due to its disruptive speed.
Economic concerns also surface, with many questioning whether the AI boom is a bubble. Valient draws parallels to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies will fail, the underlying technology endures. "AI isn’t disappearing. The internet survived its bubble, and so will AI.
Our focus is on building a solid engine that leverages AI to speed up development and inspire bigger dreams," he said. Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its first commitments but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as "reasonable." Brussee cautions against excess capital, warning that too much money can breed complacency. The company deliberately stays lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—to maintain agility. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act.
De Jong explains that a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by hiring a massive workforce. Instead, a small, focused group can iterate, make critical decisions, and seize the current window of opportunity created by AI’s rise. Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month.
The team originally expected the project to take until year‑end, but they are already moving twice as fast as anticipated. Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s "we succeed when you succeed" philosophy but admits it’s too early to define a concrete revenue strategy. Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more artistic risk‑taking and innovation.
"We love games and want to see more creativity. If our technology helps bring that to life, that would be amazing," Brussee concluded.