For many years Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles launched on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have made noticeable strides, the market still feels largely locked into the two giants, with a handful of studios opting for proprietary solutions like Capcom’s RE Engine. In this entrenched landscape, three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—believe there is still room for a fresh engine that addresses the pain points of modern creators. The trio’s résumé reads like a who’s‑who of game‑making powerhouses: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Their new venture, Immens, is set to challenge the status quo by marrying a conventional game‑engine architecture with AI‑assisted programming tools. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right: “There’s an opportunity now to build a new engine that didn’t exist a couple of years ago. With AI‑supported programming, you can start making things from scratch again, under a lot of guidance and control, and bring full functionality fast.” Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI component is not about generating assets with a single prompt. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s core to make the codebase highly extensible.
“If we design the code with AI in mind, even small teams or solo developers can extend the engine beyond simple scripting,” he says. “Someone might want a custom particle system; they can add it directly into the engine’s architecture, speeding up iteration.” This philosophy aims to give creators the ability to augment the engine quickly, rather than being confined to a monolithic, one‑size‑fits‑all solution.
The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of the games industry, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Development budgets are inflating, and the risk of failure is climbing. “It’s really hard to be successful making games,” he notes. “We need new, more efficient ways of working that let smaller teams produce high‑quality experiences without jeopardising their studios.” De Jong, the chief product officer, echoes this sentiment, arguing that the market has become overly standardized.
While standardisation provides a solid foundation, he believes the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than incremental tweaks. One of the major criticisms De Jong levels at existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which hampers creativity. With AI, Immens aims to flip this model, offering an engine that adapts to the developer’s workflow. “It needs to be very flexible,” he explains.
“You can interchange, append, modify, and create your own tools that match exactly what you, your team, and your project require—down to the shortcuts, interface layout, and feature set.” Valient acknowledges AI’s double‑edged sword. While the technology is powerful, it can also veer off course if not carefully supervised. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can see what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable outcomes. This level of oversight is intended to keep the creative process grounded, allowing developers to generate, for example, five uniquely‑behaved characters in minutes rather than weeks, and then discard the temporary tooling once the task is complete.
Flexibility is baked into Immens’ architecture. The framework does not force a particular workflow; instead, it lets developers decide how much AI assistance they want and where to apply it.
“It’s up to you how you want to use it,” De Jong says. “We provide an open, modular base so you can plug in AI where it makes sense and keep the rest of your pipeline untouched.” Interoperability is another cornerstone. By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens ensures that files can be read and manipulated by a wide range of tools—from Blender and Maya to generative‑AI pipelines.
“When you have text‑based files, anything can read them,” Brussee notes. “The AI can ingest those files, reason about them, and interact with other software without the friction that closed‑source engines often introduce.” This approach aims to dissolve the silos that have historically plagued game development pipelines.
The conversation around AI in games is often polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype “click‑to‑game” engines that could conjure a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world from a single prompt. Immens’ team tempers such expectations, positioning AI as a powerful tool rather than a magical shortcut.
“Big games and everything in between will be done because AI made everybody better,” Valient asserts. “It has negative connotations now because it’s disrupting at a scale we haven’t seen before, but it’s still just a tool.” Economic concerns also swirl, with critics warning of an AI bubble.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many speculative companies vanished, the underlying internet persisted and thrived. “AI isn’t going away,” he says. “We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our ability to dream bigger and iterate faster.” Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against over‑capitalisation, noting that excessive cash can breed complacency. The company intentionally stays lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—to maintain agility and focus. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act.
De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex endeavour that cannot be rushed by sheer manpower. “You need a small, focused team to make thoughtful decisions and iterate,” he says. “At the same time, there’s a limited window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry, so we must allocate resources wisely without over‑staffing.” Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow.
The team aimed to have this ready by year‑end but is already ahead of schedule, delivering a functional prototype within months of starting in April. Brussee admits that timeline predictions are tricky when innovation moves this fast. Regarding the business model, Immens admires Epic Games’ “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admits it’s too early to formalise a revenue strategy. The ultimate goal, according to Brussee, is to empower creators to push the medium forward: “We love games, we love complex artistic expression, and we want to see more risk‑taking and creativity.
If our technology can help make that possible, that would be amazing.”