For years, Unity and Unreal have reigned supreme in the game‑development arena, accounting for roughly 70 % of Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has gained traction and some studios cling to proprietary solutions like Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely settled into a duopoly. Against this backdrop, three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a fresh engine built around artificial intelligence, convinced there is still room for innovation. The founders’ résumés read like a who's‑who of the gaming world: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is now right for a new engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. “With AI‑assisted programming, you can start from a clean slate again,” he said.
“With the right guidance and control, you can assemble a fully functional system much faster than before.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the “prompt‑to‑art” kind that dominates headlines. Instead, the technology is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
“AI can reason about massive codebases and data sets,” he explained. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or any other feature without being limited to a handful of scripts.” This approach aims to let creators extend the engine quickly, using AI as a productivity catalyst rather than a magical shortcut.
The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of game development, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Production costs are soaring, and smaller studios are increasingly vulnerable to financial risk. “We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and speed up delivery,” he asserted. The goal is to break the cycle where escalating expenses force studios into precarious positions.
De Jong, the chief product officer, highlighted a broader industry trend: a “standardisation and consolidation” of engines that, while providing a solid foundation, now stifles creativity. “The market faces many challenges, and simply repeating old methods won’t cut it,” he said. “We need innovation, not more standardisation.” He criticized the monolithic nature of existing engines, which force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
With AI, Immens intends to flip that script, offering a platform that molds itself to the developer’s needs. Flexibility is a core tenet of Immens.
De Jong envisions a system where users can swap components, append new modules, or craft bespoke tools tailored to their personal workflow. “Imagine being able to build an interface with exactly the shortcuts, features, and layout that suit my team’s project,” he mused. This level of customization, powered by AI, aims to eliminate the friction that currently hampers rapid iteration.
Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can “go off the rails” if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: developers can see the engine’s decision history, ensuring repeatable results and preventing unexpected behaviour.
He illustrated this with a hypothetical scenario—creating five characters with a specific trait. In traditional pipelines, this might take weeks; with AI‑enhanced tooling, a developer could sketch the idea over coffee and generate usable assets in minutes, then discard the temporary tool once the job is done. The engine’s architecture deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow.
De Jong stressed that the framework is open‑ended: “It’s up to you how much AI you want to integrate and where you apply it.” This philosophy extends to interoperability. Brussee pointed out that by adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens can read and write files that any modern tool understands—whether it’s Blender, Maya, or a generative‑AI system. “When everything speaks the same language, you can plug in any software without the usual proprietary barriers,” he said. Public sentiment toward AI in game development is mixed, with some critics fearing a future where entire games are generated by a single prompt.
Immens’s team acknowledges the hype but frames AI as a “tool,” not a replacement for human creativity. Valient believes AI will elevate the quality of both blockbuster titles and indie projects, while De Jong stresses responsible usage: “Any technology can be misused; it’s our duty to guide it toward positive outcomes.” Economic concerns also surface, especially the notion that AI‑focused startups are riding a speculative bubble. Valient likened the situation to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; many companies fell, but the underlying technology endured.” Immens aims to build a genuinely useful engine, using AI to accelerate development rather than merely chasing hype. Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the capital as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against excessive cash, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The company remains a lean operation—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explained that engine development is complex and benefits from a focused, small team that can make deliberate decisions without the overhead of a massive staff.
The team is currently working on a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month. Their original timeline, set in April, projected completion by year‑end, yet they are already moving twice as fast, underscoring the productivity gains they claim AI can deliver.
As for the business model, Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” approach but admits it’s too early to define specifics. Ultimately, Brussee hopes Immens will enable creators to push the medium forward, fostering more risk‑taking and artistic expression. “We love games and want to see more daring, innovative experiences,” he concluded.
“If our technology can help make that happen, that would be amazing."