For decades, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to platforms for game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have enjoyed a surge in popularity and some major studios cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been a duopoly dominated by the two giants.
Against this backdrop, three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have decided that there is still room for a fresh, more adaptable engine. Their new venture, Immens, is built around AI‑enhanced workflows and aims to give small teams the ability to create high‑quality games without the massive budgets traditionally required. The founders bring an impressive résumé to the table. Brussee cut his teeth at Epic Games, the creator of Unreal, and later helped shape titles at Guerrilla Games and Apple.
De Jong has spent years developing tools at Boss Key and other studios, while Valient’s background spans technical leadership roles at several AAA developers. Together, they see an opportunity that did not exist a few years ago: leveraging AI not as a gimmick that spits out content from prompts, but as a deep‑integrated reasoning engine that can understand and extend a codebase. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right.
“With AI‑supported programming, you can start building things from scratch again,” he said. “Under careful guidance you can deliver full functionality quickly.” Valient clarified that Immens’ AI is not about “prompt‑to‑asset” magic; instead it is designed to make the engine itself highly extensible. By structuring the underlying architecture to be AI‑friendly, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system, a bespoke animation pipeline, or any other feature without wrestling with opaque scripting layers. “We want people to use AI to extend the engine faster, not just to generate art,” Valient noted.
The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of game development. Brussee described the industry as “rough” and warned that production costs keep climbing, making it harder for studios to stay afloat. He argued that new, more efficient ways of working are essential to break the cycle of ever‑inflating budgets. De Jong echoed this sentiment, pointing out that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While standardisation provides a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. “We need a different approach, not more of the same,” he said. One of the key criticisms De Jong has of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid toolsets, which can be a barrier for creative experimentation. Immens, by contrast, is built to be modular and interchangeable.
Users can swap out components, append new modules, or rewrite parts of the pipeline to suit their specific workflow. De Jong gave an example of tailoring an editor to his personal preferences—custom shortcuts, bespoke UI elements, and specialized toolchains—all of which can be realized without fighting the engine’s core.
Valient acknowledges that AI is powerful but also unpredictable. “If you don’t keep an eye on it, it can go off the rails quickly,” he warned.
To mitigate this, Immens is designed to keep the developer in the loop at every step. The engine logs its actions, maintains a transparent history, and allows creators to audit and repeat processes.
This level of control makes it possible to generate, for instance, five characters with specific traits in a matter of minutes—a task that previously might have taken weeks of manual labor. The resulting tools can be reused, discarded, or refined as needed, dramatically reducing cost and time. Flexibility is baked into Immens’ architecture.
The team refuses to impose a single workflow; instead, they provide a framework that can accommodate any degree of AI assistance. Developers decide how much AI to involve and where it fits into their pipeline.
This openness extends to file formats as well. By embracing open standards—text‑based assets that any program can read—Immens can interoperate seamlessly with industry staples like Blender, Maya, or other generative tools.
Brussee emphasized that “the moment you have files that are text based, anything can read it,” enabling smoother integration than the often‑isolated ecosystems of traditional engines. The broader conversation about 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’ founders are more measured.
They see AI as a powerful assistant rather than a replacement for human creativity. Valient believes that AI will make developers better, not obsolete, and cautions against the negative connotations that arise when disruptive technology is misunderstood.
Economic concerns also loom large. Critics argue that AI‑focused startups may be riding a speculative bubble.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet technology persisted and flourished. “We’re focused on building a good engine,” he said.
“AI makes us faster and lets us dream bigger, but the core product has to stand on its own.” Funding for Immens remains modest at this stage. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee warned against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency. The team deliberately remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—because building an engine is a complex, iterative process that benefits from focused decision‑making rather than a massive headcount. Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow.
The goal is to release this demo within the month, a timeline that already outpaces their original estimate of year‑end delivery. Brussee highlighted the speed of progress, saying the team is moving “two times faster than we anticipated.” The business model is still under discussion.
While the team admires Epic Games’ revenue‑share approach—where the platform succeeds when developers succeed—they admit it is too early to commit to a specific pricing structure. Ultimately, Brussee hopes Immens will empower creators to push the boundaries of the medium.
“We love games and want to see more risk‑taking and creativity,” he said. “If our technology can help bring innovative experiences to life, that would be amazing.”