Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, together powering roughly 70 % of all Steam releases slated for 2025. While Godot has enjoyed a notable surge in popularity in recent years and some major studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the dominance of Unity and Unreal remains largely unchallenged.
Enter Immens, the brainchild of three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the gaming world, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. The trio believes there is still space for a fresh engine, and more importantly, room for meaningful improvement.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. “With AI‑assisted programming, we can start building from the ground up again,” he said. “Guided, yet flexible, development can deliver full‑featured tools much faster than before.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, is quick to clarify that the AI they employ is not the kind of prompt‑driven magic that dominates headlines. “Our AI is baked into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible,” he noted.
“Because AI can parse large codebases and data sets, we can design the engine so that even solo developers or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle system—without wrestling with opaque scripting layers.” This extensibility, he argues, is a core pillar of the company’s vision: let creators harness AI to accelerate extensions rather than rely on it to generate entire games. The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑centric approach stems from a bleak market reality. Brussee described the current climate as “rough,” pointing out that development costs are spiralling and the risk of failure is higher than ever.
“We need new workflows that cut expenses, shrink team sizes, and shorten timelines,” he asserted. “If we can make games cheaper and faster, studios can protect their livelihoods rather than gamble everything on a single title.” De Jong, the chief product officer, echoed this sentiment, observing that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation offers a solid foundation, the industry now faces a host of challenges that cannot be solved by simply iterating on existing tools.
“We need innovation, not more standardisation,” he said. “A monolithic engine forces developers to adapt to its constraints—proprietary file formats, rigid pipelines, and so on. With AI, we aim to flip that script and give the engine the ability to adapt to the developer’s needs.” Flexibility, according to De Jong, is paramount. He envisions a system where users can swap components, append new features, and craft bespoke tools tailored to their personal workflows.
“Imagine a UI built exactly to my habits, with shortcuts and panels that match my team’s pipeline,” he explained. “That level of customization is what we’re building toward.” Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it is “really powerful,” it can also veer off course if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immens is designed to keep the user in the driver’s seat.
“You always see what the engine is doing, you have a full history, and you can reproduce results reliably,” he said. “If you need five characters with a specific trait, you used to spend weeks planning and coding. Now you could sketch the idea over coffee, generate a prototype with AI, reuse the tool a handful of times, and discard it—all at a fraction of the cost.” The architecture of Immens deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow.
De Jong stresses that developers can decide how much AI to incorporate and where to apply it, provided the underlying AI understands the context correctly. This openness extends to file formats as well.
Brussee highlighted the importance of open standards: “When files are text‑based, any tool can read them. The AI can ingest those files and act on them. By embracing open standards, we enable seamless interoperability with Blender, Maya, or any generative system.
That’s a huge step forward compared to the closed, proprietary ecosystems that dominate today.” Public perception of AI in game creation is mixed, with some commentators warning of a future where a single prompt spawns Grand Theft Auto‑level experiences. Immens’s team concedes that “click‑to‑game” engines might eventually emerge, but they view AI primarily as an accelerator for human creativity rather than a replacement.
“AI makes everyone better,” Valient asserted. “The negative buzz comes from the scale of disruption, not from the technology itself.” Economic anxieties also swirl around the AI boom, with fears of a bubble and inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; many companies fell, but the technology endured.
We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply helps us move faster and think bigger.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing them as “reasonable.” Brussee warned against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The company remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explained the delicate balance: a game engine is a complex undertaking that doesn’t benefit from a massive headcount, yet timing is crucial to capture the window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month.
The timeline has already outpaced original expectations; what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time. Brussee admits it’s hard to predict exact milestones, but the early speed gains are encouraging. The business model is still taking shape.
While Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing philosophy, it’s too early to commit to a specific approach. Ultimately, Brussee hopes the engine will empower creators to push artistic boundaries, take risks, and inject fresh innovation into the medium.
“We love games and want to see more daring, expressive work,” he concluded. “If our technology helps make that happen, it would be amazing."