Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides recently and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the duopoly of Unity and Unreal still dominates the market. Enter Immens, a fledgling studio founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑tech powerhouses, spanning Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together they believe there is still room for a fresh engine that addresses the shortcomings of today’s offerings. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is now ripe for a new platform that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. “With AI‑assisted programming, you can start building from scratch again,” he said.
“Guided yet flexible tools let you deliver full‑featured experiences quickly.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they employ is not the typical “prompt‑to‑output” gimmick. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “If we design the engine with AI in mind, even solo developers can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle effect—without wrestling with opaque scripting layers,” he explained.
This approach aims to let creators extend the engine rapidly, leveraging AI’s ability to reason over large codebases and data sets. The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑centric design stems from the current economic climate of game development.
Brussee describes the environment as “rough,” noting that production costs are spiralling and studios are under increasing pressure to deliver hits with ever‑larger budgets. “We need new workflows that cut costs, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he asserted. “Otherwise you risk everything—your studio, your livelihood.” De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that standardisation provides a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“The industry faces a slew of challenges, and simply repeating the old playbook won’t cut it,” he said. “We need a paradigm shift, not another incremental update.” 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. With AI, Immens intends to flip that script, offering an engine that molds itself to the developer’s needs.
“Flexibility is essential,” he noted. “You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and craft interfaces that match your personal workflow—down to the exact shortcuts and UI layout you prefer.” Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it is immensely powerful, it can also veer off course if left unchecked.
To mitigate this, Immens is built with transparency at its core. Users can see exactly what the AI is doing, review its decision history, and ensure reproducibility. “You remain in control,” he said. “If you need to generate five characters with a specific trait, you could once have spent weeks on that.
Now you might sketch the idea over coffee, let the AI produce a draft, and iterate rapidly.” Immens’s architecture deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. De Jong emphasizes that developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where to apply it. The engine’s open‑standard file formats further enhance interoperability. “When files are text‑based, any tool can read them,” Brussee explained.
“Our AI can parse those files, manipulate them, and communicate seamlessly with software like Blender, Maya, or other generative tools. This openness is a major advantage over closed, proprietary pipelines.” The broader industry has seen a backlash against AI, with sensational claims circulating on platforms like LinkedIn that one could generate a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience with a single prompt. Immens’s team tempers such hype, viewing AI as a powerful tool rather than a magic wand. “One day we might see ‘click‑to‑game’ engines, but for now we focus on empowering creators,” Valient said.
“AI makes everyone better, but it’s still a tool that must be used responsibly.” Economic anxieties also loom, as investors question whether AI in gaming is a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying technology endured. “AI isn’t disappearing. The internet survived the bubble, and so will AI.
Good products will persist; the rest will fade.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its first commitments but has not disclosed amounts, describing the capital sought as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against over‑funding, which can breed complacency. “Too much money can make a startup lazy; we need to stay scrappy.” The team itself is tiny—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design.
De Jong explains the balance: building an engine is complex and cannot be rushed by sheer manpower, yet timing is crucial to capture the window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. “We need enough resources to hit that sweet spot without drowning in bureaucracy.” Currently, Immens is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing flow, slated for release this month. The timeline has already outpaced their original estimate; what they thought would take a year is now materialising 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 approach. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will catalyse more daring, artistic games. “We love games as an expressive art form and want to see more risk‑taking,” Brussee concluded. “If our technology can help push the medium forward, that would be amazing."