For years, Unity and Unreal have held sway over game creation, powering roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides and some studios cling to proprietary tools—Capcom’s RE Engine, for instance—most developers still rely on the duopoly of Unity and Unreal. Yet three seasoned veterans, Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient, have founded Immens with the belief that there is still space for a fresh engine and, more importantly, for a better way to build games. The founders’ résumés read like a who's‑who of the industry: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is right for a new engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. He explained that AI‑assisted programming now lets developers start from a clean slate again, providing “a lot of guidance and control” while still delivering full functionality quickly.
Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, is quick to clarify that the AI they employ is not the kind that conjures assets from a single prompt. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. "AI can reason about massive codebases and data sets," he said.
"If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even small teams or solo creators can plug in custom systems—like a bespoke particle effect—without being confined to limited scripting. The AI helps them extend the engine faster and more safely." The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current market climate, which Brussee describes as "rough." Game development costs keep climbing, making it harder for studios to survive. He asks whether new workflows can break this cycle, allowing creators to produce titles with fewer people, tighter budgets, and shorter timelines. De Jong, the chief product officer, echoes this sentiment, noting that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that standardisation gave the industry a solid foundation, he believes the next phase requires genuine innovation, not just incremental improvements. One of De Jong’s main criticisms of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, offering an engine that molds itself to the user’s needs. "Flexibility is key," he says.
"You should be able to swap components, append new features, or build entirely custom tools that match your workflow—down to the exact shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set you prefer." Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. He stresses that Immens will keep users in the driver’s seat, providing full transparency over what the AI does and a complete history of changes.
This reproducibility means developers can create disposable tools—like a quick‑fire character generator that can be built over a coffee break, used for a handful of iterations, and then discarded—without the massive expense that such processes once entailed. Flexibility is baked into Immens’s core.
De Jong emphasizes that the engine does not enforce a single workflow; instead, it supplies a framework that lets teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The architecture is built around open standards, ensuring seamless interoperability with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. "When files are text‑based, any program can read them," Brussee notes. "That openness lets the AI parse and manipulate assets directly, creating smarter interfaces across the entire development stack." The broader industry reaction to AI in games is mixed, with some commentators warning of a dystopian "click‑to‑game" future where a single prompt spawns a GTA‑scale experience.
Immens’ team acknowledges that such extremes are possible but insists their vision treats AI as a tool, not a replacement for creativity. Valient believes AI will elevate developers, making them more productive, while De Jong stresses responsible usage: "Any tool can be misused; it’s our duty to guide it toward positive outcomes." Economic concerns also swirl around AI, with many fearing a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear, even though countless companies vanished.
He argues that solid technology and genuinely useful products will endure, and Immens aims to be one of those lasting solutions. Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the founders are focused on building a high‑quality engine that leverages AI to accelerate development and inspire bigger dreams. Funding details are still vague.
Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable." Brussee warns 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 explains that engine development is complex and cannot be tackled by a massive team; a small, focused group is better suited to make deliberate decisions and iterate effectively. 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 initial expectations: what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving roughly twice as fast. While the business model is still under discussion, Brussee admires Epic’s "we succeed when you succeed" licensing philosophy but says it’s too early to commit to any specific approach.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the medium forward. "We love games and the complex artistic expression they enable," Brussee concludes. "We want more creativity, more risk‑taking, and more innovation built on technology that actually serves the creator. If we can make that happen, it would be amazing."