Unity and Unreal have long held sway over game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed notable growth and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the duopoly of Unity and Unreal still dominates the market. Yet three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—believe there is space for a fresh alternative.
Their résumé spans Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and Apple, giving them the pedigree to take on the established giants. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is ripe for a new engine, one that simply did not exist a few years ago.
"With AI‑assisted programming, we can start building from scratch again," he explained. "Guided, yet flexible, development lets us deliver full‑featured tools quickly." Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that their use of AI differs from the hype‑driven "prompt‑to‑content" narrative. "Our AI is baked into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible," he said.
"Because AI can reason over large codebases, we can design the engine so that even solo developers or tiny teams can add custom systems—like a bespoke particle effect—without being limited to superficial scripting. The goal is to let creators extend the core efficiently with AI as an accelerator." The motivation behind this AI‑powered platform stems from the current economic climate of game development. Brussee described the environment as "rough," noting that production costs keep climbing and success feels increasingly elusive.
"We need new working models that cut costs, shrink team sizes, and speed up delivery," he argued. "Otherwise studios risk their livelihoods on ever‑larger budgets." De Jong, Immens’ chief product officer, observed that the engine landscape has become overly "standardised and consolidated." While that consolidation provides a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. "The industry now faces multiple challenges, and simply repeating past methods won’t solve them," he asserted.
"We need fresh ideas, not more of the same." A key criticism De Jong has of existing engines is their "monolithic" nature. Developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. By contrast, Immens aims to be a chameleon, reshaping itself to the developer’s needs. "Flexibility is essential," he said.
"You should be able to swap components, append new ones, and craft bespoke tools that match your workflow—down to the exact shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set you require." Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked. "We’re building Immens so the user remains in full control," he noted.
"You can trace every decision, understand its history, and reproduce results reliably. The engine lets you spin up custom workflows—imagine generating five distinct characters with specific traits in minutes instead of weeks. Such rapid prototyping used to be prohibitively expensive; now it’s a routine tool you can discard after use." Immens is deliberately engineered to avoid imposing a single workflow.
De Jong emphasized that the framework and architecture are open‑ended, allowing developers to decide how much AI to incorporate and where. "The AI must understand the context correctly, but the choice of integration stays with the user," he said. Interoperability is another pillar of Immens.
By adopting open, text‑based standards, the engine can communicate seamlessly with other tools. "When files are human‑readable, any program can parse them," Brussee explained. "Our AI can ingest those files and act on them.
This opens doors to plug‑and‑play with Blender, Maya, generative‑art pipelines, or any future tool that respects open standards. Historically, many engines have been closed ecosystems that resist such integration.
We want to change that." The AI debate in game development is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the idea that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, sparking fear of a "click‑to‑game" future.
Immens acknowledges that such an extreme may someday be possible, but they view AI primarily as an empowering assistant. "AI will make every creator better," Valient asserted. "It has a bad reputation now because it’s disrupting at an unprecedented scale, but it’s still just a tool." De Jong echoed this sentiment, stressing responsible use. "Every technology can be misused; it’s our duty to steer it toward positive outcomes," he said.
"AI is no different." Beyond creative concerns, there’s anxiety about the economics of AI startups. Some fear a bubble with inflated valuations. Valient dismissed panic, comparing AI to the early internet. "The dot‑com bubble didn’t eliminate the web; it filtered out the weak players while the strong ones survived.
We’re focused on building a solid engine, letting AI accelerate development, not on chasing hype. Whether it’s a bubble is unknown, but history shows useful tech endures." Funding for Immens remains modest.
The founders have secured initial commitments but haven’t disclosed amounts, describing them as "reasonable." Brussee cautioned against over‑funding, noting it can breed complacency. "Startups need to stay scrappy; too much cash can make you lazy." The team is deliberately lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers.
De Jong explained the balance: a complex engine cannot be built by a million‑person army, yet a small, focused group can iterate quickly and make critical decisions. Timing is crucial; the next few years present a window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry.
The challenge is to have enough resources to seize that window without over‑inflating the operation. Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases "the flow of editing" using generative AI, slated for release later this month. Brussee noted that the project, which began in April, is already moving twice as fast as initially projected, making timeline predictions difficult. The business model remains under discussion.
While Immens admires Epic Games’ philosophy of succeeding when developers succeed, it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. Ultimately, Brussee hopes Immens will fuel a new wave of daring, artistic games.
"We love games as an expressive art form and want to see more risk‑taking and creativity," he said. "If our technology can enable developers to push boundaries, that would be amazing."