For many years, Unity and Unreal have reigned supreme in the world of game creation, together accounting for roughly 70% of all titles launched on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have enjoyed notable growth, the market remains heavily tilted toward proprietary solutions, with large studios still leaning on in‑house engines such as Capcom's RE Engine.
In this landscape, three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have decided that there is still room for a fresh approach. Their startup, Immens, is set to build a new, AI‑enhanced game engine that they believe can break the entrenched cycle of rising costs and diminishing returns.
The founders' résumés read like a who's‑who of the industry: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because "the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply aren’t sufficient anymore." He argues that AI‑assisted programming now makes it feasible to start from a clean slate and rapidly assemble a fully functional engine under tight guidance and control. Valient, Immens' chief technology officer, clarifies that their use of AI differs from the hype‑driven "prompt‑to‑content" narrative that dominates many discussions today. "We’re not trying to conjure assets with a single sentence," he says.
"Our AI is built into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. Because AI can reason over large codebases, we can design the engine so that even a solo developer can add a custom particle system, a bespoke physics module, or any other feature without being constrained to a limited scripting layer. The goal is to let creators extend the engine quickly and safely, using AI as an accelerator rather than a magical black box." The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic pressures facing developers.
Brussee describes the market as "rough" and warns that development budgets are inflating faster than revenue streams. "It’s becoming increasingly difficult to succeed as an independent studio," he notes.
"Games are getting more expensive, and the risk to a studio’s livelihood is growing. We need new, more efficient ways of working that let smaller teams deliver high‑quality experiences without massive overhead." De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has provided a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. "Continuing to iterate on the same monolithic engines won’t solve the challenges we face," he argues.
"We need a paradigm shift—flexibility, modularity, and AI‑driven extensibility—that lets developers shape the tool to their unique pipelines." A key criticism of existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers often have to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
De Jong envisions an engine that bends to the user’s needs, allowing interchangeable components, custom toolchains, and personalized interfaces. "Imagine being able to craft a UI that mirrors your own workflow, with shortcuts and features exactly where you need them," he says. "That level of customization can dramatically reduce friction and speed up production." Valient acknowledges that AI is powerful but also unpredictable if left unchecked.
To keep developers in the driver’s seat, Immens logs every AI decision, providing a transparent history that can be audited and reproduced. This reproducibility is crucial for creative pipelines where a designer might need to generate five characters with specific traits in minutes—a task that previously could take weeks. With Immens, such workflows become cheap, repeatable, and disposable, freeing resources for higher‑level design work.
Flexibility is baked into Immens from the ground up. The engine does not enforce a single workflow; instead, it offers a modular architecture that lets teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where. De Jong stresses that the AI must understand the developer’s intent correctly, which is why the underlying codebase is designed with AI compatibility in mind. Interoperability is another cornerstone of Immens.
By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, the engine can seamlessly interact with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI system. "When files are human‑readable, any program can parse them," Brussee explains.
"Our AI can read those files, modify them, and feed them back into the engine, creating a fluid exchange between different software ecosystems. This openness is something many proprietary engines have neglected." The broader industry reaction to AI in game development is mixed. Some voices on platforms like LinkedIn hype the notion that a single prompt could generate a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, sparking fear and skepticism.
Immens’ team tempers these extremes by positioning AI as a tool rather than a replacement for craftsmanship. Valient believes that AI will ultimately elevate the entire industry: "Big games and indie titles alike will benefit because AI makes every creator more capable.
The current negativity stems from the disruptive speed of change, not from the technology itself." Economic concerns also swirl around AI, with many questioning whether the current enthusiasm is a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet technology endured and flourished. "AI isn’t disappearing; it’s evolving. Some ventures will fail, but the ones that build genuinely useful products will survive.
Our focus is on delivering a solid engine that leverages AI to accelerate development, not on chasing hype." Funding for Immens remains modest. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as "reasonable." Brussee warns against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency: "Startups need to stay scrappy. Too much money can make you lazy." The team itself is intentionally lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers.
This size allows for rapid decision‑making while avoiding the pitfalls of a massive, unwieldy organization. De Jong explains the balancing act: "Building an engine is complex; you can’t throw a million engineers at it and expect miracles. You need a focused group to iterate, learn, and make strategic choices. At the same time, we must seize the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise.
That means securing enough resources to hit milestones without over‑extending." Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The team aims to release this demo within the month, a timeline that has already outpaced their original end‑of‑year estimate.
"We’re moving twice as fast as we thought we would," Brussee says, highlighting the speed gains they’re already experiencing. The business model remains under discussion. While Immens appreciates Epic Games' "we succeed when you succeed" licensing philosophy, they admit it is too early to commit to any specific revenue structure. Ultimately, Brussee hopes the engine will empower creators to push artistic boundaries and take creative risks.
"We love games and the complex expressions they enable. If our technology can help more developers experiment and innovate, that would be amazing," he concludes.
In summary, Immens aims to combine AI’s reasoning capabilities with an open, modular engine architecture to give developers unprecedented flexibility, faster iteration, and lower costs. By keeping the tool transparent, extensible, and interoperable, the trio hopes to break the current cycle of ever‑inflating budgets and deliver a new era of game creation where imagination, not financial pressure, drives success.