For many years, the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines—Unity and Unreal. In 2025, roughly 70% of all titles released on Steam were built with one of these platforms. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have begun to attract attention, and a handful of major studios cling to proprietary tools such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market still feels firmly in the grip of the two giants.
Enter Immens, a startup founded by three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who argue that there is still room for a fresh approach. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑tech history: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they see an opportunity to build a new engine that addresses the shortcomings of the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a novel engine because “the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply aren’t enough anymore.” He believes AI‑assisted programming can revive the notion of building a game from the ground up, offering developers a way to achieve full functionality quickly while retaining granular control.
Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they are integrating is not the “prompt‑to‑image” hype that dominates headlines. Instead, their AI is designed to make the engine itself highly extensible. “If we structure the codebase so the AI can reason about it, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without wrestling with opaque scripting layers,” he says. The goal is to let creators extend the engine rapidly, using AI as a productivity partner rather than a magical shortcut.
The motivation behind this AI‑centric engine is the increasingly bleak economics of game development. Brussee describes the current climate as “rough,” noting that production budgets are spiraling upward and the risk of failure is mounting. “We need new ways of working that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and speed up iteration,” he argues.
By cutting waste and automating repetitive tasks, Immens hopes to give smaller studios a fighting chance to survive and thrive. De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation has produced a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“The industry now faces a series of challenges, and simply repeating the old formula won’t solve them,” he says. “We need breakthrough ideas, not more of the same.” He criticises the monolithic nature of current engines, where developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
With AI, Immens aims to deliver a system that molds itself around the developer’s workflow. Flexibility is a core design principle.
De Jong envisions a toolbox where users can swap components, append new features, and craft personalized interfaces that match their unique backgrounds and project needs. “Imagine being able to build a set of shortcuts, UI panels, and automation scripts that feel tailor‑made for your team,” he explains. That level of customisation, powered by AI, could dramatically reduce the time spent on mundane setup tasks. Valient also warns that AI is a double‑edged sword.
While it can accelerate development, it can also “go off the rails” if left unchecked. Immens therefore places a strong emphasis on transparency and control: developers will always see what the engine is doing, retain a full history of changes, and be able to reproduce results reliably. This auditability is crucial for creative pipelines where a designer might need to generate five unique characters in minutes—a process that previously could take weeks. The architecture of Immens deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow.
De Jong stresses that the framework is built to let users decide how much AI to employ and where to apply it. Whether a studio wants a heavily AI‑augmented pipeline or a more traditional approach, the engine should accommodate both, provided the AI can interpret the underlying data correctly. Interoperability is another pillar of the project.
By leaning on open, text‑based standards, Immens hopes to play nicely with established tools such as Blender, Maya, and other generative‑AI suites. “If the files are readable as plain text, any tool can ingest them,” Brussee notes. This openness contrasts with many proprietary engines that act as closed ecosystems, hindering seamless integration.
The broader AI debate in game development is heated. Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale world, fueling fears of “click‑to‑game” shortcuts. Immens’ founders acknowledge that such extremes may eventually be possible, but they view AI primarily as an enhancer of human creativity rather than a replacement. “AI will make everyone better, not take over the craft,” says Valient, noting the current negative perception stems from the disruptive speed of the technology.
Economic anxieties also linger, especially concerning the possibility of an AI bubble. Valient draws a parallel with the dot‑com era, asserting that while many companies will fade, the underlying technology will endure.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply helps us iterate faster and dream bigger,” he says. Whether the market is inflated is uncertain, but the team believes the value of a robust, AI‑ready engine will outlast any speculative hype. Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments,” though the founders keep the exact figures private, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The company deliberately stays lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—to retain agility and keep development focused. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act. De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be rushed by simply adding more staff.
Instead, a small, dedicated team can make thoughtful decisions and iterate efficiently, especially during the critical window of AI adoption in the industry. Immens is currently targeting 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.
Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. Ultimately, the founders hope their 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, expressive titles,” Brussee concludes.
“If our technology can help make that happen, it would be amazing."