Unity and Unreal have long held sway over the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles launched on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made noticeable strides in recent years and some major 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, the brainchild of three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still room for a fresh engine and, more importantly, room for meaningful improvement.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and Apple. Together, they are setting out to challenge the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because “the tools that existed a few years ago simply aren’t enough anymore.” He argues that AI‑assisted programming now makes it possible to start building a game engine from the ground up with far less manual effort.
“With a lot of guidance and control, you can create something that delivers full functionality quickly,” he said. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they are leveraging is not the kind that generates assets from a single prompt.
Instead, the AI is baked into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “AI can reason over large amounts of data and code,” he noted.
“If we design the engine with that in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or any other feature without being constrained to a limited scripting layer.” This extensibility, he says, is the cornerstone of their AI‑first approach. The motivation behind Immens is also rooted in the current economic realities of game development. Brussee describes the market as “rough” and warns that production costs are spiralling upward, making it increasingly difficult for small studios to survive. “We need new ways of working that lower costs and let teams create games faster with fewer people,” he argued.
The goal is to break the cycle of ever‑rising budgets that threaten the livelihood of independent creators. De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While this has provided a solid foundation, he believes the industry now requires genuine innovation rather than incremental refinements. “Continuing to do exactly what we’ve always done isn’t enough,” he said.
“We need a different paradigm.” One of the pain points he highlights is the monolithic nature of existing engines. Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, offering an engine that adapts to the developer’s needs.
“It must be extremely flexible,” De Jong explains. “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, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked.
To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep the user in the driver’s seat. “You always know what the engine is doing, you can trace its history, and you can reproduce results reliably,” he says.
This transparency allows creators to generate bespoke tools for specific tasks—like quickly spawning five characters with a particular trait—without months of manual coding. “What used to cost a small studio a fortune can now be prototyped over coffee,” Valient adds. Flexibility is baked into the engine’s core.
De Jong stresses that Immens does not impose a single workflow; developers decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The architecture is deliberately modular, ensuring that teams can pick and choose AI assistance without being forced into a one‑size‑fits‑all pipeline. Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’ design philosophy. By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, the engine can seamlessly communicate with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI system.
“If the files are readable, the AI can manipulate them,” Brussee notes. This openness contrasts with many proprietary engines that act as closed ecosystems, hindering smooth data exchange. The broader industry conversation around AI is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the notion of “click‑to‑game” experiences that could rival blockbuster titles with a single prompt.
Immens’ team, however, views AI as a powerful tool rather than a magic wand. “AI will make every developer better,” Valient asserts, acknowledging the current negative perception but emphasizing responsible usage.
Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with fears of a bubble and inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying technology persisted and flourished.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our vision,” he says. Whether the AI market is a bubble remains uncertain, but Immens is betting on the longevity of the technology. Funding details are still under wraps. Immens has secured its “first commitments,” but the founders are vague about the exact amount, describing it as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency.
“Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughs. The team remains intentionally lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers. De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex undertaking that doesn’t benefit from a massive headcount.
“You need a small, focused group to make thoughtful decisions and iterate,” he says, while also recognizing the need to hit a market window created by AI’s rise. Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The prototype is slated for release within the month, already arriving “twice as fast” as the original timeline projected in April. Brussee admits that predicting exact milestones is challenging given the rapid progress.
Regarding the business model, Immens 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 empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more artistic risk‑taking and innovation. “We love games and want to see more daring, creative experiences,” Brussee concludes.
“If our technology can help make that happen, that would be amazing."