For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces shaping the video‑game development landscape, accounting for roughly 70 % of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have begun to gain traction, most large studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prominent example—leaving Unity and Unreal with a near‑monopoly on the market. Enter Immens, a fledgling company founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑making powerhouses, with experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
The trio believes there is still room for a fresh engine that can address the shortcomings of the current offerings and usher in a new era of development efficiency. 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. With AI‑assisted programming, you can start building from scratch again, under tight guidance and control, and get full functionality much faster." Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that the AI component is not about generating assets with a single prompt, but rather about constructing an engine that is highly extensible. "AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets.
If we design the architecture with that in mind, even small teams or solo developers can extend the engine beyond simple scripting. Want a custom particle system?
You can plug it in directly. That’s the kind of flexibility we’re aiming for, letting creators use AI to accelerate extensions." The motivation behind Immens’ AI‑powered engine stems from the increasingly hostile economics of game development.
Brussee described the current climate as "rough": "Making games is getting more expensive every year. Developers need a way out of that cycle—new, more efficient workflows that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and shorten timelines, so studios aren’t gambling their livelihoods on massive budgets." De Jong, the chief product officer, added that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that consolidation has provided a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. "The industry faces a host of challenges, and simply repeating the old methods isn’t enough.
We need genuine innovation, not just more of the same," he asserted. A key criticism De Jong has of existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
With AI, Immens envisions an engine that molds itself to the user’s needs. "It must be extremely flexible—interchangeable, appendable, modifiable. I can build tools that match my exact workflow, with the shortcuts, interfaces, and features my team requires." Valient warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep users in the driver’s seat.
"You’ll always know what the engine is doing, its history, and you can reproduce any step. You can also create bespoke tools for specific problems—like generating five characters with a particular trait in minutes rather than weeks. That kind of rapid, disposable workflow was once prohibitively expensive." Flexibility is baked into Immens’ core.
The platform does not enforce a single workflow; developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where. De Jong emphasized that the architecture must support varied approaches while ensuring the AI interprets instructions correctly. Interoperability is another priority. By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens aims to play nicely with the broader ecosystem—Blender, Maya, generative‑AI tools, and more.
"When files are readable as plain text, any tool can parse them. The AI can manipulate those files directly.
Open standards let us create smarter interfaces across the board, something proprietary engines have struggled with." The AI debate in game development is polarized. Some pundits on LinkedIn hype the idea of “click‑to‑game” engines that could produce Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt.
Immens acknowledges that such a future might be possible, but they view AI primarily as a powerful assistant, not a replacement for human creativity. Valient summed it up: "Big games will still be made by people, but AI will make everyone better. The current negative perception stems from the sheer scale of disruption we’re witnessing." Economic concerns also swirl around AI, with fears of a bubble and inflated valuations. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear, but many over‑hyped companies fell away, leaving the solid ones to thrive.
"We’re focused on building a great engine. AI helps us iterate faster and dream bigger.
Whether this is a bubble is unknown, but history shows that useful technology endures." Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable." Brussee cautioned against excess capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency: "Startups that are too well‑funded can become lazy; we want to stay scrappy." The team itself is tiny—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers. This lean structure is intentional. De Jong explained the trade‑off: building an engine is complex, but you don’t need a thousand engineers to make progress.
A small, focused group can make deliberate decisions and adapt quickly, especially during the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month.
Brussee noted that the project, which began in April, is already moving twice as fast as initially projected, underscoring the speed gains AI can deliver. The business model is still under discussion.
While Immens admires Epic’s "we succeed when you succeed" licensing philosophy, Brussee said it’s too early to commit to a specific approach. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward. "We love games and the complex artistic expression they enable.
We want more creativity, more risk‑taking, and more innovation built on this technology. That would be amazing," Brussee concluded.