For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed notable growth recently and large studios continue to rely on proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been a duopoly. Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a new AI‑enhanced game engine that they believe can carve out a meaningful niche.
The founders bring a heavyweight résumé: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is now right for a fresh engine because “the tools that didn’t exist a couple of years ago are finally feasible.” He points to AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that allows developers to start from a clean slate while still retaining tight guidance and control. In his view, this combination can deliver full‑featured functionality far more quickly than traditional pipelines.
Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that their use of AI is not about prompting the system to conjure assets out of thin air. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. He explains, “AI can reason over massive code and data sets.
If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without wrestling with opaque scripting layers.” This philosophy aims to empower small teams to extend the engine at a level previously reserved for large studios. The motivation behind Immens is also economic.
Brussee describes the current climate as “rough,” noting that game budgets keep inflating and the risk of failure is climbing. He asks whether developers can break the cycle by finding more efficient workflows that let them produce high‑quality games with fewer people, tighter schedules, and smaller financial stakes. De Jong, the chief product officer, echoes this sentiment, observing that the engine market has become standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation provides a solid foundation, he argues the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than more of the same.
One of De Jong’s key criticisms of existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, limiting creativity.
With AI, Immens intends to flip that model: the engine should adapt to the developer, not the other way around. He envisions a system where users can interchange components, append new modules, and craft tailor‑made tools that match their personal workflow—complete with custom shortcuts, interfaces, and feature sets.
Valient is realistic about AI’s limits. He acknowledges that while the technology is “really powerful,” it can also veer off course if left unchecked.
To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep the user in the driver’s seat. Every action taken by the AI is logged, repeatable, and transparent, allowing developers to understand exactly how a tool arrived at a result. This level of control is crucial for creative problem‑solving, such as generating a set of five characters with specific traits in minutes rather than weeks.
Flexibility is baked into the engine’s DNA. De Jong stresses that Immens does not impose a single workflow; instead, the underlying framework lets teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The architecture is deliberately open, supporting text‑based file formats that can be read and manipulated by any tool. Brussee highlights the advantage of open standards: “If files are plain text, any program—Blender, Maya, or a generative‑AI model—can read them, enabling seamless interoperability.” This openness addresses a long‑standing pain point where many engines act as closed ecosystems, hindering cross‑tool collaboration.
The broader AI debate in game development is polarized. Some commentators on platforms like LinkedIn hype the notion of “click‑to‑game” engines that could produce Grand Theft Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt. Immens’s team acknowledges that such a future might be possible but insists their current goal is to provide a powerful, responsible tool.
Valient argues that AI will elevate the entire industry, making both blockbuster and indie projects better, while De Jong stresses that any technology can be misused, and it’s the community’s duty to apply it responsibly. Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with many questioning whether the sector is a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet endured and flourished.
He believes Immens’s focus on building a genuinely good engine—using AI to accelerate development and expand creative horizons—positions it to survive any market turbulence. Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against over‑capitalization, noting that excess money can breed complacency. The company deliberately stays lean, consisting of the three founders plus a handful of helpers, believing that a small, focused team can make better architectural decisions than a massive, unwieldy group. Immens is now racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month.
The team started in April and already feels they are moving twice as fast as initially projected, underscoring the productivity gains they claim AI can deliver. The business model is still under discussion. While Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing philosophy, Brussee says it’s too early to commit to a specific approach.
Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will enable developers to push creative boundaries, take risks, and produce games that advance the medium. As Brussee puts it, “We love games, we love complex artistic expression, and we want to see more of it. If our technology helps spark that innovation, it would be amazing."