For many years the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines: Unity and Unreal. In fact, by 2025 they powered roughly seventy percent of all titles released on Steam. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have begun to gain traction, and a handful of large studios still rely on proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely settled into a duopoly. Enter Immersive Technologies – better known as Immens – 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. The trio believes there is still space for a fresh engine, and that the next generation of tools can be built with artificial intelligence at its core. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform. "A few years ago this kind of engine simply didn’t exist," he said.
"With AI‑assisted programming we can start from scratch again, while still keeping tight guidance and control, and deliver full‑featured tools much faster than before." Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, stressed that their use of AI is not about the flashy "prompt‑to‑asset" hype that dominates headlines. "We’re not trying to conjure whole games with a single sentence," he clarified. "Our AI is woven into the engine’s architecture so that the codebase becomes highly extensible.
The system can reason over large code graphs, making it possible for solo developers or small teams to plug in custom modules – a bespoke particle system, a unique animation pipeline, anything – without being limited to a tiny scripting sandbox. In short, AI helps people extend the engine quickly and safely." The motivation behind Immens is also rooted in the current economic climate of game development.
Brussee described the market as "rough" and warned that production budgets keep inflating. "It’s getting harder to succeed when each project costs more and more," he noted. "We need new ways of working that shrink costs, accelerate timelines, and let smaller teams ship high‑quality experiences without risking their studios." De Jong, the chief product officer, pointed out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that stability gave developers a reliable foundation, it also stifles innovation. "The industry faces a host of challenges, and simply repeating the old playbook isn’t enough," he argued.
"We need breakthrough ideas, not just another iteration of the same monolithic engines." One of the pain points he highlighted is the "monolithic approach" of existing tools. Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows, which can be a barrier to creativity. With AI‑driven adaptability, Immens aims to become an engine that bends to the developer’s needs rather than the other way around. "Flexibility is key," De Jong said.
"You should be able to swap components, append new features, and craft bespoke tools that match your personal workflow – the exact shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set that your project demands." Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immens is designed to keep the user in the driver’s seat. "You always see what the engine is doing, you can audit its history, and you can reproduce results reliably," he explained.
This transparency enables developers to create throw‑away utilities for specific tasks – for example, generating five characters with a particular trait in minutes, a process that previously might have taken weeks of manual work. Immens’ architecture deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. De Jong emphasized that teams can decide how much AI to integrate and where to apply it. "Our framework is modular, so you can pick and choose the AI assistance that makes sense for your pipeline, while still retaining full control over the underlying code." Interoperability is another cornerstone of the platform.
By embracing open, text‑based standards, Immens ensures that external tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI system can communicate seamlessly. "When files are human‑readable, any program can parse them," Brussee noted.
"That means the AI can ingest assets, modify them, and hand them back to your favorite 3D suite without a proprietary bridge. This level of openness has been missing from many closed‑source engines." The broader conversation around AI in games is often polarized. Some pundits on LinkedIn hype the notion of "click‑to‑game" experiences, suggesting that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world.
Immens’ founders acknowledge that such extremes may eventually be possible, but they view AI primarily as a productivity tool. "AI will make everyone better, not replace the creative process," Valient said. "It has a negative stigma now because it’s disrupting the industry at an unprecedented scale, but responsible use can unlock new artistic horizons." Economic concerns also linger, especially the fear that AI‑focused startups are riding a speculative bubble. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; many companies simply fell away, leaving the robust technologies behind.
"We’re focused on building a solid engine first. AI accelerates us and lets us dream bigger, but whether the market is a bubble is unknown – we’ll only know when it bursts." Funding for Immens remains modest. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed the exact amount, describing it as "reasonable." Brussee cautioned against over‑capitalization, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
"Startups need to stay scrappy," he laughed. "If you have endless cash, you risk losing the hunger that drives innovation." The team itself is intentionally lean – just the three founders plus a handful of helpers.
This size, according to De Jong, balances the complexity of building an engine with the need to move quickly and make decisive architectural choices. "You can’t throw a million engineers at this problem and expect it to work instantly," he said. "A small, focused group can iterate faster and seize the narrow window of opportunity that AI is opening for the industry." Immens is currently working toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow.
The goal is to release the demo within the month, a timeline that Brussee says is already twice as fast as originally projected. "We started in April and thought we’d be at the end of the year before we had something tangible," he recalled. "Now we’re ahead of schedule, which makes it hard to predict exact milestones." Regarding the business model, Immens appreciates Epic Games’ "we succeed when you succeed" licensing philosophy, but Brussee admits it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue structure.
The focus remains on delivering a compelling, flexible engine that empowers creators of all sizes. Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will catalyze a new wave of daring, artistic games.
"We love games and want to see more risk‑taking and creativity," Brussee concluded. "If our technology helps studios push the medium forward, that would be amazing."