For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, responsible for roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have begun to gain traction, most major studios still rely on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a notable example—and the market has seemed firmly in the hands of the two giants.
Enter Immens, a venture founded by three industry veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game‑making history, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
The trio believes there is still room for a fresh engine, and more importantly, room for a new way of building games. 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 points to the rise of AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that allows developers to start from a clean slate while still receiving strong guidance and control. “With AI‑supported code generation you can prototype core systems much faster and get a fully functional prototype in days rather than months,” he said. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, is quick to clarify that the AI they are integrating is not the “prompt‑to‑art” kind that dominates headlines.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “If we design the engine so the AI can reason about the entire code graph, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke animation pipeline without rewriting large sections of the engine,” he explained. The goal is to let creators use AI as a rapid‑extension tool rather than as a magic‑bullet that conjures entire games from a single sentence.
The motivation behind Immens’s AI‑first approach is rooted in the current economic pressures of the games market. Brussee describes the environment as “rough”: development costs keep climbing, and the risk of a project failing has never been higher. “We need new workflows that cut costs, let smaller teams ship faster, and reduce the financial gamble for studios of any size,” he argued.
The founders see AI as a lever to achieve those efficiencies. De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation has given developers a reliable foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“The industry is at a crossroads. Continuing to iterate on the same monolithic engines won’t solve the challenges we face.
We need a paradigm shift—flexibility, modularity, and AI‑driven adaptability,” he said. One of the pain points De Jong highlights is the monolithic nature of existing engines.
Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which can be a barrier to creativity. With Immens, the aim is to create an engine that bends to the developer’s will.
“You should be able to swap out modules, append new tools, and tailor the UI to your exact workflow. If I need a shortcut for a specific shader workflow, I can build it directly into the editor,” he explained. Valient acknowledges that AI is powerful but also unpredictable.
“If you don’t keep an eye on it, the system can go off the rails quickly,” he warned. Immens therefore includes transparent logging and version‑controlled histories so developers always know what the AI has done and can reproduce results reliably.
This transparency, he says, turns AI from a black‑box into a trustworthy collaborator. The flexibility of Immens extends to its openness.
The engine is being built around text‑based, open standards, allowing seamless interoperability with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. “When files are human‑readable, any AI can parse and manipulate them.
That means you can plug in external assets or scripts without fighting against a proprietary format,” Brussee noted. This openness is intended to break the isolation that many current engines impose, fostering a more connected ecosystem. There is, of course, a vocal backlash against AI in game development, with some commentators warning that future “click‑to‑game” solutions could make the craft trivial.
Immens’s team sees AI not as a replacement but as an enhancer. “Big titles and indie experiments alike will benefit because AI makes everyone more capable,” Valient said. “It’s a tool, and like any tool, it can be misused, but it also opens doors that were previously closed.” Economic concerns also swirl around the AI boom, with many fearing a bubble of over‑valued startups. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst; the weak players fell away, but the core technology endured.
We’re focusing on building a solid engine first; AI simply accelerates our development and expands our creative horizon.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed exact numbers, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
“Startups need to stay scrappy; otherwise you lose the edge that drives innovation.” The company remains a lean operation—just the three founders and a handful of helpers. This size is intentional, as De Jong explains: “Building an engine is a complex, nuanced task. You can’t throw a thousand engineers at it and expect miracles.
A small, focused team can make deliberate decisions and iterate quickly, which is essential given the narrow window of opportunity created by AI’s rise.” Immens is currently targeting a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a full editing workflow powered by generative AI, slated for release later this month. Brussee admits the timeline has been surprisingly aggressive: “We started in April and expected to be ready by year‑end. We’re already twice as fast as we projected.” When asked about the eventual business model, Brussee mentions admiration for Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing philosophy but admits it’s too early to lock in specifics.
The overarching ambition, however, is clear: to empower creators to push the medium forward. “We love games as an art form and want to see more risk‑taking, more creativity. If our engine can be the foundation for the next wave of innovative titles, that would be amazing,” Brussee concluded.