For many years, Unity and Unreal have reigned supreme in the world of game development, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have made notable strides, most large studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—leaving the market largely dominated by the two giants.
Enter Immens, a fledgling venture founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑tech heavyweights, 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 a fundamentally different approach. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is now right for a new platform that simply did not exist a few years ago.
“With AI‑assisted programming, you can start building from scratch again,” he explained. “Guided by intelligent tools, you can bring full‑fledged functionality to life far more quickly than before.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they are integrating is not the kind that generates content from a single prompt. Instead, it serves as a structural aid that makes the engine itself highly extensible. “AI can reason about massive codebases and data sets,” he said.
“If we design the architecture with that capability in mind, even solo developers can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle engine—without being confined to a limited scripting layer.” This philosophy underpins their goal of letting creators harness AI to extend the engine at a rapid pace. The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑centric engine stems from a bleak market reality that Brussee describes as “rough.” Game development costs are spiralling, making it increasingly difficult for small teams to survive.
“We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he warned. “Otherwise studios risk their livelihoods.” De Jong, the chief product officer, echoed this sentiment, noting that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that stability has provided a solid foundation, he believes the industry now demands innovation, not further homogenization. “Continuing to do exactly what we’ve always done won’t cut it,” he asserted.
“We need a different paradigm.” One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the monolithic nature of current engines. Developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, offering an engine that molds itself to the developer’s needs. “Flexibility is key,” he said.
“You should be able to swap components, add new tools, and craft interfaces that match your personal workflow—shortcuts, features, UI, everything—tailored to your project.” Valient also cautioned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users will always know what the engine is doing, see its decision history, and be able to reproduce results. This level of oversight, he argued, enables creators to build bespoke tools for specific problems—like generating five characters with a unique trait—in minutes rather than weeks. “What used to cost a small fortune can now be prototyped over coffee,” he remarked.
The architecture of Immens is deliberately agnostic. It does not enforce a single workflow or dictate how much AI should be employed. Instead, the framework is set up so developers decide where AI fits into their pipeline, while ensuring the underlying models interpret instructions correctly.
This open‑ended design also extends to file formats. Brussee pointed out that text‑based files can be read by any tool, allowing seamless integration with industry staples such as Blender, Maya, or other generative systems. “Open standards let everything talk to each other,” he explained.
“That interoperability has been missing from many proprietary engines.” Despite a vocal backlash against AI in game creation—some pundits on LinkedIn claim that a simple prompt could soon spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience—the Immens team views AI as a facilitator, not a replacement. Valient envisions a future where “click‑to‑game” engines exist, but insists that AI will remain a tool that amplifies human creativity rather than supersedes it.
“The technology is disruptive, but it makes everyone better,” he said. Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with many fearing a bubble of over‑valued startups. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the internet itself persisted and flourished. “We’re building a solid engine; AI simply makes us faster and more ambitious,” he argued.
“Whether we’re in a bubble is unknown, but great products survive regardless.” Funding for Immens remains modest. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee warned against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The company currently consists of the three founders plus a handful of helpers, intentionally staying lean to retain agility. De Jong explained the balancing act: a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by throwing a million developers at it.
A small, focused team can make thoughtful decisions and iterate efficiently. At the same time, there is a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry. “We need enough resources to hit that sweet spot without over‑staffing,” he said. Immens is 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 their original expectations—what they thought would take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time. Brussee admitted that predicting exact milestones is challenging when the technology moves this quickly.
Regarding the business model, Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but acknowledges that it is too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. Ultimately, Brussee hopes the engine will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more artistic risk‑taking and innovation. “We love games and want to see more daring, creative experiences,” he concluded. “If our tech can help make that happen, that would be amazing."