For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have gained traction, and a few studios still rely on proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been locked into the duopoly of Unity and Unreal. Enter Immens, a startup founded by three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still space for a fresh engine and, more importantly, for a better way to build games.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, Apple, and other high‑profile studios. Together they aim to challenge the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because “a couple of years ago this simply didn’t exist.” He argues that AI‑assisted programming now makes it possible to start from scratch again, offering “full functionality fast” while keeping developers in control.
Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that their use of AI is not about magical prompts that conjure assets out of thin air. Instead, the AI is embedded in the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
“AI can reason about large codebases and data sets,” he says. “If we design the engine with that in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or any other feature without being limited to a narrow scripting layer.” This extensibility is intended to let creators extend the engine quickly, leveraging AI as a productivity catalyst rather than a replacement for human creativity.
The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic pressures of game development. Brussee describes the market as “rough,” noting that production costs keep climbing and that studios need new workflows to break the cycle of ever‑larger budgets and larger teams. He asks, “Can we find more efficient ways of working, to help decrease the cost and make games with fewer people in a faster time with smaller budgets so you’re not risking your livelihood, your studio, everything?” De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become standardized and consolidated. While that stability provides a solid foundation, he believes the industry now demands innovation, not further standardization.
He criticizes the “monolithic approach” of existing engines, where developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. With AI, Immens aims to deliver a system that adapts to the developer’s needs, allowing interchangeable modules, custom tools, and personalized interfaces.
“You can create tools that match exactly the shortcuts, features, and UI you need for your project,” he explains. Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. He stresses that Immens will keep users in the driver’s seat: “You know what the engine is doing, you can see its history, and you can repeat the process reliably.” This transparency enables developers to craft bespoke workflows—like generating five unique characters in minutes instead of weeks—without sacrificing control. Flexibility is baked into Immens’s design philosophy.
De Jong emphasizes that the engine does not impose a single workflow; teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The architecture is deliberately open, supporting open standards so that text‑based files can be read and manipulated by any tool.
Brussee notes that this openness makes it trivial to plug in software such as Blender, Maya, or other generative tools, fostering a “smarter interface” between disparate applications. The broader conversation around AI in games is polarized.
Some pundits on LinkedIn hype “click‑to‑game” promises, suggesting that a simple prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience. Immens’s founders are more measured. They see AI as a powerful assistant that can elevate the quality of games, but they reject the notion that it will replace human designers. “AI is a tool,” Valient says.
“It has negative connotations now because it’s disrupting at a scale we haven’t seen before, but the right use will make everyone better.” Economic anxieties also loom. Critics warn that the AI boom could be a bubble with inflated valuations. Valient counters that even if a bubble bursts, the underlying technology will persist, just as the internet survived the dot‑com crash.
“We’re focused on building a good engine; AI simply helps us move faster and dream bigger,” he asserts. Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against excess capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The team remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design.
De Jong explains the balance: a complex engine cannot be built by a million‑person army, yet a small, focused team can iterate quickly and seize the current window of opportunity created by AI advancements. The startup is now working on a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing flow.
Originally slated for year‑end, the demo is expected to ship within the month, already moving at double the projected speed. As for the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will enable more daring, artistic games. “We love games as complex expressions of art,” says Brussee. “We want to see more creativity, more risk‑taking, and innovation built on this technology. That would be amazing.”