Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles launched on Steam in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed notable growth recently and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been a duopoly dominated by the two giants.
Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a startup that believes there is still room for a fresh engine and for meaningful improvement. The founders’ résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑tech powerhouses: 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, noting that “a few years ago this simply didn’t exist.” He points to AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that could let developers start from a clean slate again, delivering full‑featured tools much faster than traditional pipelines. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI component is not about generating content through prompts alone. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
“AI can reason over large codebases and data sets,” he explains. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle system—without being confined to limited scripting layers.” This philosophy aims to let creators augment the engine swiftly, using AI as a productivity amplifier rather than a black‑box generator.
The motivation for this venture stems from what Brussee describes as a “rough” market environment. Game development costs are spiralling, making commercial success increasingly elusive.
“We need new ways of working that cut expenses, shrink team sizes, and speed up delivery,” he says. The goal is to break the cycle where studios risk everything on ever‑larger budgets. De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, observes that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that stability provides a solid foundation, the industry now faces a host of challenges that demand innovation, not merely incremental refinement.
He criticizes the current “monolithic” approach of major engines, which forces developers to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. With AI, De Jong envisions an engine that molds itself to the user’s needs, offering interchangeable modules, appendable features, and the ability to craft bespoke tools tailored to individual project requirements.
Flexibility is a recurring theme. De Jong stresses that developers should be able to build exactly the interface, shortcuts, and features their teams need, rather than adapting their creative process to the engine’s constraints.
Valient acknowledges AI’s power but warns that it can “go off the rails” if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can see what the engine is doing, track its decision history, and ensure repeatable outcomes.
This level of oversight is crucial when AI‑generated tools are used for rapid prototyping—such as creating five distinct characters with specific traits in a coffee‑break timeframe—without sacrificing reliability. Immens deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. The architecture is designed so developers decide how much AI to employ and where, while the underlying system remains open enough to integrate with other industry tools. By adopting open, text‑based standards, the engine can read and write files that any compatible software—Blender, Maya, or future generative tools—can understand.
Brussee notes that many companies are now embedding these standards, which helps break the isolation that traditional engines often create. The broader conversation about AI in game development is contentious. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype “click‑to‑game” engines that could conjure Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt.
Immens’s team tempers such hype, framing AI as a powerful assistant rather than a replacement for human creativity. Valient believes AI will make developers better, not obsolete, and stresses responsible usage. De Jong adds that every tool can be misused, but it is the industry’s duty to guide its application ethically. Economic concerns also loom.
Critics warn that AI‑focused startups may be riding a bubble, with inflated valuations detached from real value. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear, but many over‑hyped companies fell, while those with solid products survived. Immens aims to be the latter, focusing on building a genuinely useful engine that leverages AI for speed and imagination, regardless of market hype. Funding remains modest.
The founders have secured “first commitments” but have not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excess capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. Immens stays lean, consisting of the three founders plus a handful of helpers, intentionally limiting headcount to preserve agility.
Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act. De Jong explains that a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by throwing a million developers at it.
Instead, a small, focused team must iteratively make decisions and refine the product. Yet timing is critical: the industry is at a crossroads with AI reshaping workflows, and Immens wants to capture that window without over‑extending resources. Currently, Immens is working toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases “the flow of editing something” using generative AI, slated for release this month. The development timeline has already outpaced initial expectations—what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving roughly twice as fast.
While the exact business model is still under discussion, Brussee expresses admiration for Epic’s revenue‑share philosophy (“we succeed when you succeed”) but admits it’s too early for concrete commitments. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward. “We love games and want to see more daring, artistic expression,” says Brussee. “If our technology can enable more risk‑taking and innovation, that would be amazing.”