For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While the open‑source Godot engine has begun to gain traction, most large studios still cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, leaving the market largely monopolised 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 new venture called Immens. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of modern game development: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they argue that there is both space and need for a fresh engine that leverages recent advances in artificial intelligence.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right: “A few years ago this kind of engine didn’t exist. With AI‑assisted programming we can start building from scratch again, under tight guidance, and get full‑featured tools up and running quickly.” Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the typical “prompt‑to‑output” model that many developers fear. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
“The AI can reason about large code bases and data sets,” he said. “If we design the core with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without being limited to a tiny scripting layer.” This approach is intended to let creators extend the engine at a much faster pace, using AI as a productivity catalyst rather than a replacement for human creativity. The motivation behind Immens is also economic.
Brussee described the current climate as “rough”: development costs are soaring, and studios are forced to gamble larger budgets and bigger teams, increasing the risk of failure. “We need new ways of working that shrink costs, speed up production, and let smaller teams compete without jeopardising their livelihoods,” he asserted. De Jong, the chief product officer, added that the engine market has become overly standardised and consolidated.
While this has provided a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry now faces a suite of challenges, and simply repeating the old methods won’t cut it.
We need genuine innovation, not just another standardised tool,” he argued. One of the key criticisms De Jong has of existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers often have to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
By contrast, Immens aims to be a flexible, modular platform that can be reshaped by the user. “You should be able to swap components, append new features, and build custom tools that match your exact workflow,” he explained. “Imagine a designer who can create an interface with the exact shortcuts, panels, and visual style that suit their team’s needs, without fighting the engine’s defaults.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked.
“We are building Immens so that users remain in full control of what the engine does. Every action is logged, reproducible, and transparent, so you always know why a result was produced.” He illustrated this with a hypothetical: generating five characters with a specific trait used to take weeks of planning and manual work. With AI‑enhanced tools, a developer could sketch the concept over coffee, generate the assets, iterate, and discard the temporary workflow—all at a fraction of the cost. Flexibility is baked into the engine’s DNA.
De Jong emphasised that Immens does not impose a single workflow; developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where. “The architecture is deliberately open, allowing you to pick and choose the level of AI assistance you need, while ensuring the AI understands the context correctly.” Interoperability is another pillar of the project.
By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens can communicate seamlessly with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. “When files are human‑readable, any system can parse them. This eliminates the ‘black‑box’ nature of many current engines and lets developers plug in their favourite software without friction,” Brussee noted.
The conversation around AI in game development is polarising. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale world, feeding fears of a “click‑to‑game” apocalypse. Immens’ team acknowledges that such extremes are unlikely in the near term. Valient sees AI as a powerful assistant rather than a replacement: “AI will make every creator better, but it remains a tool.
Like any technology, it can be misused, but it’s our responsibility to guide it responsibly.” Economic concerns also swirl, with many questioning whether the AI boom is a bubble. Valient drew a parallel to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst; many companies vanished, but the underlying technology persisted and grew stronger. We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our development and expands our imagination.” Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its first round of commitments, though the exact amount is undisclosed and described only as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against excess capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. “Start‑ups need to stay scrappy; otherwise you lose the edge that drives innovation.” The team itself is intentionally lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers.
De Jong explained the trade‑off: a massive crew doesn’t guarantee success for a complex engine; a focused, small group can make decisive, thoughtful choices. At the same time, they recognise a narrow window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry, and they aim to hit that sweet spot with the right amount of talent and funding. Immens is currently building a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a full editing workflow powered by generative AI.
The goal is to release the demo within the month, a timeline that has already outpaced their original estimate of year‑end delivery. “We’re moving twice as fast as we thought we would,” Brussee said, underscoring the speed gains that AI can unlock.
Regarding the business model, Brussee mentioned admiration for Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing philosophy, but admitted it’s too early to lock in a definitive approach. The overarching ambition, however, is clear: to empower creators to take bigger creative risks, produce more innovative games, and ultimately push the medium forward. “We love games, we love the art form, and we want to see more daring, more expressive experiences. If Immens can be the foundation for that, it would be amazing,” Brussee concluded.