For more than a decade Unity and Unreal have ruled the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly seventy percent of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have begun to make noticeable gains, most large studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s in‑house RE Engine being a prime example. The dominance of Unity and Unreal has therefore seemed almost unassailable.
Enter three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who have launched a new venture called Immens. Their résumé reads like a who’s‑who of modern game development: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, Apple, and other heavyweight studios. Together they argue that the market still has room for a fresh engine, and that the next generation of tools should be built with artificial intelligence at its core. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because “the possibilities that didn’t exist a couple of years ago are now within reach.” He believes AI‑assisted programming can bring developers back to a state of true creation from scratch, allowing rapid assembly of fully functional systems under guided control.
Rather than relying on endless manual scripting, the team envisions an environment where the engine itself can be extended and reshaped by developers using AI as a collaborative partner. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, is quick to clarify that the company’s use of AI is not about generating assets with a single prompt. “Our AI is baked into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible,” he says.
By designing the codebase to be AI‑aware, even solo creators or tiny teams can inject custom features—such as a bespoke particle system—without fighting against a rigid, monolithic framework. The goal is to let developers say, “I want this specific tool,” and have the engine adapt, rather than forcing them to conform to a one‑size‑fits‑all pipeline. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of game development.
Brussee describes the environment as “rough,” noting that production costs keep climbing while budgets shrink. “It’s getting harder to succeed,” he warns. “We need new ways of working that reduce risk, lower expenses, and let smaller teams deliver high‑quality experiences faster.” The trio believes AI can be a catalyst for that shift, providing efficiency gains that translate into shorter development cycles and smaller financial exposure. De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While this has produced stable foundations, it also stifles innovation. “We’re at a point where the industry faces many challenges, and simply repeating the old playbook won’t cut it,” he asserts. “What we need now is genuine innovation, not more standardisation.” He criticises the current “monolithic approach” of major engines, where developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
With AI, Immens aims to deliver a flexible platform that can be reshaped on the fly, allowing users to swap components, append new modules, or craft entirely custom tools tailored to their personal workflow and project needs. Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. “The technology is really powerful, but it can go off the rails quickly if you’re not paying attention,” he cautions.
Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: developers will always be able to see what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure reproducibility. This level of oversight is intended to keep the creative process trustworthy while still leveraging AI to accelerate tasks that previously took weeks—such as generating a set of characters with specific traits—down to a coffee‑break brainstorming session. Flexibility is a core design principle.
De Jong stresses that Immens will not dictate a single workflow; instead, it will provide a modular architecture where users decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The engine will also adopt open standards, making it interoperable with common tools like Blender, Maya, and other generative pipelines.
“When files are text‑based, any program can read them,” Brussee explains. “The AI can parse those files and act on them, enabling seamless integration across the ecosystem.” This openness counters the tendency of many proprietary engines to become isolated islands that resist external standards. The broader conversation around AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the notion of “click‑to‑game” experiences, suggesting that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world.
Immens’ team tempers such hype, positioning AI as a powerful **tool** rather than a magical shortcut. Valient believes AI will make every creator better, even if the technology currently carries negative connotations due to its disruptive scale. De Jong adds a responsible‑use perspective: “Any tool can be misused; it’s our duty to guide it toward productive outcomes.” Economic anxieties also swirl, with many questioning whether AI‑centric startups are caught in a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many speculative companies vanished, the underlying internet survived and flourished.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our vision,” he says. Whether the market is overheated remains uncertain, but Immens is prepared to weather potential turbulence by concentrating on delivering genuine value.
Funding details are still under wraps. Immens has secured its “first commitments,” but the founders have not disclosed the exact amount, describing it only as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency. The company intentionally remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—believing that a small, focused team can make decisive architectural choices without the overhead of a massive staff. Balancing ambition with resources is a delicate act.
De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex endeavour that cannot be solved by simply throwing a million developers at the problem. A tight, iterative team can make thoughtful decisions, while still seizing the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rapid adoption. The team is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month. Brussee notes that the project, which began in April, is already progressing twice as fast as originally projected, underscoring the productivity boost that AI can deliver.
The long‑term business model remains a work in progress. While Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy, they admit it is too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more artistic risk‑taking and innovative gameplay. “We love games and want to see more creativity and risk‑taking,” Brussee concludes.
“If our technology helps bring that vision to life, that would be amazing.”