Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed notable growth 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.
Against this backdrop, three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a startup that believes there is room for a fresh, AI‑enhanced engine. The founders bring a résumé that reads like a who’s‑who of modern gaming: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is ripe for a new engine, noting that “an opportunity now exists that didn’t exist a couple of years ago.” He sees AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that can let developers start from a clean slate again, providing “full functionality fast” while still keeping tight guidance and control. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, is careful to differentiate his vision of AI from the hype‑driven notion of simply prompting a system to conjure assets.
He explains that the AI built into Immens is designed to make the engine itself highly extensible. By allowing the codebase to be reasoned about and manipulated by AI, even solo creators or very small teams can add custom features—such as a bespoke particle system—without being limited to superficial scripting.
In Valient’s words, the AI is a tool for rapid extension, not a magic wand that fabricates entire games. The motivation behind this ambitious project is the increasingly bleak economics of game development.
Brussee describes the current climate as “rough,” emphasizing that production costs keep climbing, making it harder for studios to survive. He asks whether new workflows can break this cycle, reducing budgets, team sizes, and timelines so that developers aren’t gambling their livelihoods on a single title.
De Jong, the chief product officer, echoes this sentiment, pointing out that the engine space has become “standardised and consolidated.” While that consolidation offers a solid foundation, he argues the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than more of the same. One of De Jong’s critiques of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which can stifle creativity. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script: the engine should adapt to the developer, not the other way around.
He envisions a system where users can swap, append, or modify components at will, crafting bespoke tools that match their personal workflow, shortcuts, and interface preferences. This flexibility is meant to empower creators to build exactly what they need for each project. Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. He stresses that Immens will keep users in the driver’s seat, providing full transparency about what the engine does and a complete history of actions.
This repeatable, auditable approach ensures that developers can trust the output and fine‑tune it as required. He illustrates the potential with a simple example: generating five characters with a specific trait that previously might have taken weeks can now be prototyped over a coffee break, used a handful of times, and discarded—dramatically cutting costs. Flexibility is baked into the engine’s architecture.
De Jong stresses that Immens does not enforce a single workflow; instead, it offers a framework that lets teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The engine also embraces open standards, meaning that text‑based files can be read and edited by any compatible tool. Brussee notes that this openness enables seamless integration with software like Blender, Maya, or other generative platforms, fostering smarter interfaces across the development stack.
Historically, many engines have acted as closed ecosystems, hindering interoperability; Immens seeks to reverse that trend. The broader conversation around AI in games is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype “click‑to‑game” promises, suggesting that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience. While Immens’s team concedes that such ultra‑automated tools might appear someday, they stress that AI should be viewed as an augmenting tool, not a replacement for human creativity.
Valient believes AI will make developers better, even if the technology currently carries negative connotations due to its disruptive scale. Economic anxieties also shadow the AI boom.
Critics warn of a bubble with inflated valuations that may burst. Valient counters that AI is not a passing fad—just as the internet survived the dot‑com crash, the technology will endure, even if many companies fail.
Immens’s focus remains on building a high‑quality engine; AI merely accelerates development and expands the imagination. Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency. The company deliberately stays lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—believing that a small, focused team can make critical decisions more efficiently than a massive workforce.
Immens is currently developing 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 estimate; what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time.
Brussee admits that predicting timelines remains challenging, but the early speed gains are encouraging. Regarding the business model, Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but says it’s too early to define concrete terms. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will enable more daring, artistic games.
Brussee concludes, “We love games, we love complex artistic expression, and we want to see more risk‑taking. If our technology can help push the industry forward, that would be amazing.”