For many years, the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines: Unity and Unreal. In fact, roughly seventy percent of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025 were built with one of those two platforms.
While the open‑source Godot engine has enjoyed a surge of interest lately, the market still largely favors proprietary solutions, such as Capcom’s in‑house RE Engine. The result is a near‑monopoly that leaves little room for alternative approaches. Enter Immens, a fledgling company founded by three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still space for a fresh engine and, more importantly, for a better way to build games. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the modern gaming world: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, Apple, and several other high‑profile studios.
Together they aim to challenge the status quo with an engine that leverages artificial intelligence not as a gimmick, but as a core design principle. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because “the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply don’t meet today’s needs.” He argues that AI‑assisted programming can let developers start from a clean slate again, offering “guided, controllable automation that delivers full functionality quickly.” Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they are integrating is not about prompting the system to conjure assets out of thin air. Instead, it is about constructing an engine architecture that is inherently extensible. “AI can reason about massive codebases and data sets,” he says.
“If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system, a bespoke animation pipeline, or any other feature without being constrained to a limited scripting layer.” This philosophy underpins Immens’ promise to let creators extend the engine at a pace previously reserved for large teams. The motivation for this ambitious project stems from what Brussee describes as a “rough” market reality. Game development costs continue to climb, making it increasingly difficult for small studios to survive.
“We need new ways of working that reduce expenses, shrink team size, and accelerate timelines,” he asserts. The goal is to break the cycle of ever‑larger budgets that threaten the livelihood of independent developers. De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While standardization provides a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“The industry now faces a series of challenges, and merely repeating old methods won’t solve them,” he says. “We need genuine innovation, not just more of the same.” He criticizes current engines for their monolithic nature, forcing developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. With AI, Immens aims to deliver a system that molds itself to the developer’s needs rather than the other way around.
Flexibility is a recurring theme. De Jong envisions a scenario where a developer can swap components, append new modules, or completely redesign tools to match personal preferences. “Imagine being able to craft an interface with exactly the shortcuts, features, and layout that suit your project,” he explains. “That level of customization is what we’re building toward.” Valient also warns that AI, while powerful, can quickly veer off course 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 reliably. This accountability is crucial for creative pipelines where a designer might need to generate five unique characters with specific traits. In the past, such a task could take weeks; with AI‑augmented tools, it could be prototyped over a coffee break and iterated instantly.
Immens does not intend to impose a single workflow. De Jong stresses that the framework will be neutral, allowing teams to decide how much AI to incorporate and where. “The architecture will be open enough that you can choose your own processes, while still ensuring the AI interprets instructions correctly,” he says. Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’ design.
By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, the engine can communicate seamlessly with other popular tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. “When files are human‑readable, any system can parse them,” Brussee notes.
“This opens the door for smarter interfaces across the entire development stack, something proprietary engines have historically resisted.” The broader conversation about AI in games is fraught with controversy. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the notion of “click‑to‑game” engines that could produce Grand Theft Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt.
Immens acknowledges the hype but frames AI as a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity. “AI will make everyone better, not replace them,” Valient says. “It’s disruptive, yes, but that disruption can be harnessed responsibly.” Economic anxieties also surface, with critics labeling the AI boom a bubble.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet technology persisted and flourished. “AI isn’t disappearing; it’s evolving. Our focus is on building a solid engine that leverages AI to accelerate development, not on chasing inflated valuations.” Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excessive capital, which can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy; too much money can make you lazy,” he jokes. The team itself is lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers.
This intentional size reflects a belief that a complex engine cannot be built by a million‑person army; instead, a small, focused group can make decisive architectural choices. Yet they also recognize a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry. Balancing sufficient resources with a tight team is the “trade‑off” they are navigating.
Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The aim is to release this demo within the month, demonstrating how quickly the team can iterate.
“We expected to be done by year‑end, but we’re already twice as fast,” Brussee reports, highlighting the very speed gains they promise to deliver to users. Regarding the business model, Brussee mentions admiration for Epic Games’ “we succeed when you succeed” approach, but admits it’s too early to finalize pricing or licensing structures. The ultimate ambition, however, is clear: to empower creators to push artistic boundaries, take risks, and innovate without being shackled by prohibitive costs. In summary, Immens seeks to combine AI’s reasoning capabilities with an open, extensible engine architecture, giving developers—whether solo indie creators or small studios—the freedom to tailor tools, accelerate pipelines, and lower financial barriers.
If successful, this could represent a meaningful shift away from the entrenched dominance of Unity and Unreal, ushering in a new era of flexible, AI‑enhanced game development.