Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70 % of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years and some studios—such as Capcom with its RE Engine—continue to rely on proprietary solutions, the market has largely been monopolized by the two giants. Enter Immens, a fledgling company founded by three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still space for a fresh engine and, more importantly, for a better way to build games.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, Apple, and other high‑profile studios. Together they are setting out to challenge the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine: “There’s an opportunity now that didn’t exist a couple of years ago. With AI‑assisted programming you can start building from scratch again, under tight guidance, and get full‑featured results quickly.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they employ is not the kind of “prompt‑to‑output” magic that dominates headlines.
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 says. “If we design the engine with that in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or any other feature without being limited to simple scripting. The AI helps you extend the engine faster, not replace the developer.” The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑centric approach is the increasingly hostile economics of game development.
Brussee describes the current climate as “rough.” Games are becoming ever more expensive to produce, and the risk of failure threatens studios’ very survival. “We need new, more efficient ways of working that lower costs, reduce team size, and shorten timelines,” he argues. “Only then can creators take risks without jeopardising their livelihoods.” De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has entered a phase of “standardisation and consolidation.” While that has provided a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“The industry faces a host of challenges, and simply repeating the old playbook won’t solve them. We need innovation, not more standardisation.” A key criticism of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. De Jong envisions an engine that bends to the user’s needs, not the other way around. “It must be flexible—allowing you to swap components, append new tools, and tailor the interface to your exact workflow.
If I need a shortcut or a custom UI for my team, I should be able to build it directly into the engine.” Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it is “really powerful,” it can also “go off the rails quickly if you don’t pay attention.” Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: developers can see exactly what the AI is doing, review its history, and ensure repeatable results.
This level of oversight, he says, transforms previously weeks‑long tasks—like generating five characters with specific traits—into something that can be prototyped over a coffee break and reused as needed, dramatically cutting costs. Flexibility is baked into Immens’s core philosophy. The engine does not impose a single workflow; users decide how much AI to incorporate and where. “The framework and architecture are set up so you can choose your own path, whether you rely heavily on AI or prefer a more manual approach,” De Jong explains.
“The AI must understand the context correctly, but the final decision always lies with the developer.” Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’s design. By adopting open, text‑based standards, the engine can communicate seamlessly with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. “When files are human‑readable, any program can parse them.
The AI can read, modify, and generate these assets on the fly,” Brussee notes. This openness contrasts with many current engines that act as closed ecosystems, making integration cumbersome. The broader community remains divided on AI’s role in game creation. Some pundits on LinkedIn hype a future where a single prompt spawns a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale experience.
Immens’s team tempers such hype, viewing AI as a powerful assistant rather than a “click‑to‑game” wizard. “AI will make everyone better, not replace the craft,” Valient says.
“It’s a tool that, like any technology, can be misused, but it also opens doors to creativity we haven’t seen before.” Economic anxieties also surface, with many questioning whether AI is a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst; the hype faded, but the underlying technology endured. We’re building a solid engine first; AI just accelerates our development and expands what’s possible.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing them as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against excessive capital: “Too much money can make a startup lazy.
Scrappiness drives innovation.” The company remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explains the trade‑off: “You can’t throw a million engineers at an engine and expect it to work. A small, focused team can make deliberate decisions and iterate faster, especially during this narrow window of opportunity created by AI advances.” The team is already working on a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing flow, slated for release later this month.
What was projected to take until year‑end is now on track for a much earlier launch, a testament to the speed gains they claim AI provides. When asked about the business model, Brussee says Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admits it’s too early to finalize details. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward. “We love games as an art form and want to see more risk‑taking and creativity,” Brussee concludes.
“If our technology can help bring that vision to life, that would be amazing."