For many years the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines—Unity and Unreal. In 2025 they powered roughly 70 % of all titles released on Steam, while open‑source alternatives such as Godot have begun to make inroads. Still, a large portion of the market remains loyal to proprietary solutions, from Capcom’s in‑house RE Engine to other closed‑source platforms. Within this seemingly settled environment, three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—believe there is still room for a fresh approach.
Their startup, Immens, aims to build an AI‑enhanced engine that tackles the pain points of cost, speed, and flexibility that many smaller studios face. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because the technological landscape has shifted dramatically in the past few years. “There’s an opportunity now to build something that didn’t exist a couple of years ago,” he said. “With AI‑assisted programming, you can start from scratch again while keeping tight control over the process.
The result is a fully functional system that can be assembled much faster than traditional pipelines.” Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that the AI component is not about generating content through simple prompts. Instead, it is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “AI can reason over massive amounts of data and source code,” he noted.
“If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system, a bespoke animation tool, or any other feature without being confined to a limited scripting layer. The AI acts as an accelerator for extension, not a magic wand that creates entire games on demand.” The motivation behind Immens is also economic. Brussee described the current market as “rough” and warned that development costs are spiralling upward, making it increasingly difficult for independent creators to survive. “Games are getting ever more expensive, and the risk to a studio’s livelihood is growing,” he said.
“We need new, more efficient ways of working that let smaller teams deliver high‑quality experiences on tighter budgets and shorter schedules.” De Jong, the chief product officer, observed that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation has provided a solid foundation, he argued that the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than incremental refinement. “We’re at a point where the status quo won’t solve the challenges ahead,” he asserted. “A monolithic engine forces developers to adapt to its file formats and workflows.
With AI, we can flip that relationship: the engine adapts to the developer.” Flexibility is a core tenet of Immens. De Jong envisions a system where users can swap, append, or modify components at will, building tools that match their personal workflows. “I can create an interface with the exact shortcuts, features, and layout my team needs,” he explained.
“The engine should not dictate how you work; it should empower you to shape it.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: developers can see exactly what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable results. This level of oversight makes it possible to generate, for example, five uniquely‑behaved characters in the time it used to take weeks, then discard the temporary tool once the task is complete.
Such on‑demand tooling dramatically reduces cost and accelerates iteration. Another design goal is interoperability. By relying on open, text‑based standards, Immens allows external applications—whether Blender, Maya, or future generative tools—to communicate seamlessly with the engine. “When files are plain text, any program can read them,” Brussee said.
“The AI can ingest those files, manipulate them, and feed them back into the pipeline. Open standards are finally catching on, and we want to be the bridge that lets all these tools talk to each other without proprietary bottlenecks.” The conversation around AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators hype “click‑to‑game” fantasies where a single prompt spawns a GTA‑level world. Immens’ team acknowledges that such extremes are unlikely in the near term.
Instead, they view AI as a sophisticated assistant that makes developers better, not a replacement for human creativity. “AI will improve the craft of everyone involved,” Valient said. “It has a negative stigma now because it’s disrupting at an unprecedented scale, but it’s simply another tool.” Economic anxieties also linger, especially given the hype‑driven valuations in the AI sector.
Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com bubble: “Is AI going away? No. Did the internet disappear after the bubble burst?
No. Some companies will fail, but the technology will endure.
Our focus is on building a solid engine; AI just helps us move faster and think bigger.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its first commitments but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against over‑funding, noting that excess capital 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—by design. De Jong explained the trade‑off: a massive team does not automatically translate into a functional engine, yet a window of opportunity exists as AI matures. “We need enough people and money to hit that sweet spot, but not so many that we lose focus.” Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow.
The team expects to release the demo within the month, already delivering results twice as fast as their original timeline projected. While the business model is still taking shape, Brussee expressed admiration for Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy, though he admitted it’s too early for concrete plans.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the medium forward. “We love games and the complex artistic expression they enable,” Brussee concluded. “We want more creativity, more risk‑taking, and more innovation built on technology like this.
If we can help make that happen, it would be amazing."