For years, Unity and Unreal have ruled the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70 % of all Steam releases projected for 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have gained traction, most large studios still lean on proprietary engines—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—leaving Unity and Unreal with a near‑monopoly on the market. Enter Immens, a startup founded by three seasoned veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a hall of fame of the industry, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together they argue that there is still room for a fresh engine, and that the time is ripe for a paradigm shift. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the current moment presents a unique opening: “A few years ago the idea of a brand‑new engine didn’t make sense.
With AI‑assisted programming, we can start from scratch again and get full‑featured tools up and running much faster.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ isn’t the “prompt‑and‑get‑a‑game” magic many fear. Instead, it serves as a structural aid that makes the engine highly extensible.
“AI can analyse massive codebases and data sets,” he said. “If we design the architecture with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or a bespoke animation pipeline without being confined to a limited scripting layer.” This approach, he believes, will let creators extend the engine at speed, leveraging AI as a productivity multiplier rather than a replacement for human ingenuity.
The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the harsh economic realities of modern game development. Brussee described the environment as “rough,” noting that production budgets keep inflating while the risk of failure grows. “We need new ways of working that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he argued.
The goal is to break the cycle that forces studios to gamble everything on ever‑larger projects. De Jong, the chief product officer, observed that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has created a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry faces a host of challenges, and simply repeating the old formula won’t cut it,” he said.
“What we need now is genuine innovation, not more of the same.” One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the monolithic nature of existing engines. Developers must adapt to rigid file formats and workflows dictated by the engine’s designers. With AI, Immens aims to flip that relationship: the engine should adapt to the developer.
“Flexibility is key,” he explained. “You should be able to swap modules, append new features, or build entirely custom tools that match your personal workflow—down to the shortcuts, UI layout, and specific functions you need for a particular project.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked.
To mitigate this, Immens is built with transparency and control at its core. Users can see exactly what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable results.
This level of oversight allows developers to create throw‑away tools for one‑off tasks—like generating five characters with a specific trait—in minutes rather than weeks, dramatically reducing cost. Immens deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow on its users.
De Jong emphasized that the framework is deliberately open‑ended: “You decide how much AI you want to use and where you apply it. The architecture is designed to let you pick and choose, as long as the AI can understand the context correctly.” Interoperability is another cornerstone of the platform. By embracing open, text‑based standards, Immens ensures that assets from tools such as Blender, Maya, or other generative pipelines can be read and manipulated without friction.
“When files are human‑readable, any system can interact with them,” Brussee noted. “That openness lets us build smarter interfaces across the entire toolchain, something proprietary engines have historically resisted.” The broader conversation about AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype a future where a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, fueling fears of “click‑to‑game” solutions.
Immens’s team acknowledges that such extremes might eventually be possible, but they view AI primarily as an accelerator for human creators. “AI will make everyone better, not replace them,” Valient asserted.
“It’s a tool, and like any tool, it can be misused, but it also holds the potential to unlock unprecedented creativity.” Economic anxieties also linger. Critics argue that the AI boom resembles a bubble, with inflated valuations and speculative hype. Valient counters that, even if a bubble bursts, the underlying technology will endure—much like the internet survived the dot‑com crash.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine first; AI just helps us move faster and think bigger. Whether it’s a bubble or not, we’ll let the market decide.” Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its first round of commitments, though the exact amount is undisclosed and described as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against over‑capitalization, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The company remains a lean operation: the three founders plus a handful of helpers, deliberately keeping the team small to stay agile and scrappy.
Balancing resources with ambition is a constant challenge. De Jong explained that creating an engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by sheer headcount. “You need a focused team to make thoughtful decisions and iterate slowly,” he said. “At the same time, there’s a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry.
We must align funding, talent, and timing to seize that moment.” Immens is currently developing 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 expectations—what they thought would take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time. Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue structure.
The overarching aim, however, is clear: to empower creators to push the medium forward. “We love games and the artistic expression they represent,” he concluded. “We hope our technology fuels more creativity, risk‑taking, and innovation in the industry. That would be amazing."