Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, together powering roughly 70% of the titles that landed on Steam in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed a notable surge in popularity over recent years and some major studios still rely on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the dominance of Unity and Unreal remains largely unchallenged. 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‑tech heavyweights, with experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
The trio believes there is still room for a fresh engine, and more importantly, for a better way to build games. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that “the moment is right” to create a new engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. He pointed to the rapid advances in AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst: "With AI‑supported coding you can start building from scratch again, under tight guidance, and get full‑featured functionality quickly." Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they are integrating is not the kind that conjures assets from a single prompt.
Instead, he described it as a tool for making the engine itself highly extensible. "AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets. If we design the engine with that in mind, even small teams or solo developers can plug in custom systems—like a bespoke particle system—without being confined to a limited scripting layer." The motivation behind this AI‑powered platform stems from the current climate of the games market, which Brussee characterises as "rough." Development costs are spiralling, and the risk of failure is growing. "We need new ways of working that lower expenses, let smaller teams move faster, and reduce the financial gamble on a studio’s future," he said.
De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, observes that the engine space has become increasingly standardised and consolidated. While that standardisation has provided a solid foundation, it has also led to a monolithic approach where developers must bend their pipelines to the engine’s proprietary formats and workflows.
He argues that the industry now needs genuine innovation, not just more of the same. According to De Jong, a monolithic engine forces developers to adapt rather than the engine adapting to them. With AI, however, the vision is for an engine that can be reshaped on the fly.
"You should be able to swap components, append new modules, or craft entirely new tools that match your personal workflow. Imagine a designer who can build a UI with the exact shortcuts, features, and interface they prefer, then hand it to the whole team.
That level of flexibility is what we’re aiming for." Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. "The technology is incredibly strong, but it can go off the rails quickly if you’re not vigilant," he warned. To mitigate this, Immens is building transparency into the engine: users will always see what the AI is doing, retain a full history of changes, and be able to reproduce results reliably.
This control, he says, enables rapid iteration—such as generating five uniquely‑behaved characters over a coffee break—that would previously have taken weeks of manual work. Flexibility is baked into the architecture. De Jong emphasises that Immens will not force a single workflow on its users.
"You decide how much AI you want to employ and where. The framework is open enough to let you pick the tools that suit your project, whether that’s heavy AI assistance or a more traditional pipeline." Interoperability is another cornerstone. By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens aims to play nicely with existing tools like Blender, Maya, and other generative software.
"When files are human‑readable, any system can ingest them. The AI can parse those files and act on them, which makes cross‑tool collaboration seamless.
Many engines are closed ecosystems; we want to break that barrier and enable smarter, more fluid interfaces across the whole development stack." The broader conversation around AI in game creation is heated. Some pundits on LinkedIn hype a future where a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, prompting backlash from creators who fear a "click‑to‑game" utopia. Immens’s team tempers such expectations, positioning AI as an augmenting tool rather than a replacement for human creativity.
Valient notes, "Big games will still be made because AI makes everyone better, not because AI does the whole job." Economic concerns also loom. Critics warn that AI‑focused startups may be riding a bubble with inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; many companies simply fell away, leaving the robust technologies behind.
"We’re focused on building a solid engine. AI helps us iterate faster and dream bigger, but whether the market is a bubble is uncertain." Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable." Brussee cautions against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency.
"Startups need to stay scrappy; too much money can make you lazy." The company remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers. This small size is intentional, as De Jong explains: building an engine is a complex endeavour that benefits from focused decision‑making rather than a massive team. Yet they also recognise a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry, and they must balance resources to hit that sweet spot. Immens is currently 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. When asked about the business model, Brussee mentioned admiration for Epic’s "we succeed when you succeed" approach, but admitted it is too early to cement any specific strategy. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward.
"We love games and the complex artistic expression they enable. We want more creativity, more risk‑taking, and more innovation built on technology that actually serves the developer," Brussee concluded. "If we can help make that happen, it would be amazing."