For years, Unity and Unreal have held sway over the game‑development landscape, powering roughly 70% of the titles that landed on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides 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. Enter Immens, a startup founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑engine history, with experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they argue that there is still space for a fresh engine, and that the current tools can be improved dramatically. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform. "A few years ago the idea of building an engine from the ground up with AI assistance didn’t make sense.
Today, AI‑supported programming lets us start from scratch again and still deliver a fully functional product quickly," he said. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, is quick to clarify that the AI they employ is not the kind that simply generates assets from a prompt.
"Our AI is baked into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. Because AI can reason over large codebases, we can design the engine so that even small teams or solo developers can add custom features—like a bespoke particle system—without wrestling with rigid scripting layers," he explained.
The goal is to let creators harness AI to accelerate extensions, not replace the creative process. The motivation behind this AI‑powered engine stems from the harsh reality of today’s game market. Brussee describes the environment as "rough" and increasingly expensive. Development costs continue to climb, making it harder for studios to break even.
"We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and speed up delivery, so developers aren’t risking everything on a single title," he argued. De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has given developers a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. "The industry now faces a host of challenges, and simply iterating on existing tools isn’t enough.
We need a fundamentally different approach," he said. One of the pain points De Jong highlights is the "monolithic" nature of current engines.
Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and workflows, limiting flexibility. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script: the engine should adapt to the developer, not the other way around. "You should be able to swap components, append new modules, and craft tools that match your personal workflow—down to the exact shortcuts and interface layout you prefer," he noted.
Valient acknowledges that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked. "We’re building Immens so users remain in full control. You can see exactly what the engine is doing, its decision history, and you can reproduce results reliably.
This transparency lets you create throw‑away tools for specific tasks—like generating five characters with a particular trait—in minutes instead of weeks," he said. Flexibility is baked into Immens’s core philosophy.
De Jong stresses that the engine does not enforce a single workflow. "You decide how much AI you want to incorporate and where.
The architecture is deliberately open, so you can tailor it to your project’s needs," he explained. Interoperability is another cornerstone. By leveraging open, text‑based standards, Immens can communicate seamlessly with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline.
"When files are human‑readable, any program—including our AI—can parse and manipulate them. This eliminates the siloed nature of many current engines and enables smarter, cross‑tool interfaces," Brussee added. The broader conversation around AI in game development is polarized.
Some pundits on LinkedIn hype a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale experience. Immens’s team acknowledges the hype but treats AI as a tool, not a magic button. "One day we might see ‘click‑to‑game’ engines, but for now we focus on empowering creators to be more efficient and imaginative," Valient said. Economic concerns also swirl, with many questioning whether AI‑centric startups are riding a bubble.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; many companies fell, but the underlying technology persisted. "Our aim is to build a genuinely good engine. AI just helps us iterate faster and dream bigger. Whether the market is a bubble is unknown, but the technology isn’t going away," he remarked.
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.
"Startups need to stay scrappy. Too much money can make you lazy," he laughed. The company remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers. This intentional size allows for rapid decision‑making and focused development.
De Jong explains the trade‑off: "Building an engine is complex, so you can’t throw a million engineers at it. You need a small, dedicated team to make thoughtful choices, yet you also need enough resources to hit the market window created by AI’s rise.
Balancing those factors is our current challenge." Immens is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month. The timeline has already outpaced their original estimate; what they thought would take until year‑end is now arriving roughly twice as fast. As for the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s "we succeed when you succeed" approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue strategy.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will enable games that push artistic boundaries and encourage risk‑taking. "We love games as an expressive medium. If our technology can help creators innovate and take bold steps, that would be amazing," Brussee concluded.