For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to tools for game creators, accounting for roughly 70% of all Steam releases in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have gained traction and some studios cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been dominated by the two giants. Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have decided to challenge the status quo with a fresh offering: Immens, an AI‑enhanced game engine designed to give smaller teams a viable alternative. The founders’ résumés read like a roll‑call of gaming royalty.
Brussee spent years at Epic Games, the creators of Unreal, while De Jong contributed to titles at Guerrilla Games and Boss Key, and Valient has held senior positions at Apple. Their combined experience spans the full spectrum of game development, from AAA pipelines to mobile‑first projects. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is now right for a new engine because “the landscape has changed in ways that didn’t exist a few years ago.” He believes AI‑assisted programming can restore the ability to build tools from the ground up, delivering full‑featured functionality more quickly than traditional hand‑coded approaches.
Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI component is not about generating assets with a single prompt. Instead, the technology is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “AI can reason over large codebases and data sets,” he explains. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny studios can add custom systems—like a bespoke particle effect—without wrestling with rigid scripting layers.” The goal is to let creators extend the engine as naturally as they would extend a library, accelerating iteration while preserving control.
One of the driving forces behind Immens is the increasingly hostile economics of game production. Brussee describes the current climate as “rough,” noting that development costs keep climbing and the risk of financial ruin grows for anyone who cannot hit a hit quickly. He asks, “How can we break the cycle of ever‑higher budgets and larger teams?” The answer, according to the Immens team, lies in more efficient workflows powered by AI, allowing studios to produce high‑quality experiences with fewer people and less time.
De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has provided a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. “We’re at a point where the industry faces multiple challenges, and simply iterating on old practices won’t cut it,” he says. “We need fresh ideas, not just more of the same.” He criticizes the monolithic nature of existing engines, which often force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
With AI, Immens aims to become a malleable platform that reshapes itself around the user’s needs. Flexibility is a recurring theme in the Immens vision. De Jong envisions a system where developers can swap components, append new features, and craft tailor‑made tools that match their personal workflows.
“Imagine being able to design an interface with the exact shortcuts and panels you need for a particular project,” he says. “That level of customization is what we’re building toward.” Valient also warns that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and user control: the engine logs its decisions, provides a clear history of changes, and lets developers intervene whenever necessary. This approach, he argues, restores confidence in automated processes and makes repeatable, reliable pipelines possible.
The engine’s architecture deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. De Jong stresses that teams can decide how much AI assistance they want and where to apply it. The underlying code is open‑standard‑friendly, meaning that text‑based files can be read and manipulated by any compatible tool. “If you’re using Blender, Maya, or any generative asset system, you can plug it straight into Immens because everything speaks the same language,” Brussee notes.
This openness contrasts with many current engines that act as closed ecosystems, hindering interoperability. Public sentiment toward AI in game development is mixed.
Some commentators hype the idea of “click‑to‑game” engines that could produce GTA‑scale experiences from a single prompt, fueling fear that creativity will be reduced to button‑presses. Immens’ founders reject that dystopian view. Valient sees AI as a catalyst that makes developers better, not a replacement for human imagination. “It’s a tool, like any other technology,” he says.
“It can be misused, but it also has the potential to elevate the whole medium.” Economic concerns also surface, especially regarding the hype‑driven valuations surrounding AI startups. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com bubble, noting that while many companies will disappear, the underlying technology will endure. “AI isn’t going away,” he asserts. “We’re focused on building a solid engine that leverages AI to speed up development and enable bigger dreams.
Whether the market is a bubble is uncertain, but the tech itself is here to stay.” Funding for Immens remains modest at this stage. The team has secured initial commitments but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excessive capital, arguing that too much money can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughs. “A lean team forces you to make smart decisions and iterate quickly.” Currently, Immens consists of the three founders plus a handful of helpers.
They aim to keep the operation small while they develop a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases AI‑driven editing workflows. The demo is slated for release within the month, and the team already reports that they are moving twice as fast as originally projected. Brussee acknowledges that timeline predictions are difficult in such an experimental space, but the early momentum is encouraging.
Regarding the business model, Immens is still exploring options. While they admire Epic Games’ revenue‑share philosophy—"we succeed when you succeed"—they admit it is too early to commit to a specific pricing structure. Ultimately, their ambition is to empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more risk‑taking and artistic expression.
As Brussee puts it, “We love games, we love the complex art form, and we hope our technology can spark the next wave of innovation.”