For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, accounting for roughly seventy percent of the titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have gained traction and large studios still rely on proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been a duopoly. Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have founded Immens with the belief that there is still room for a fresh engine that can address the shortcomings of the status quo.
The founders bring a résumé that reads like a who’s‑who of game development: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Their combined expertise gives them a unique perspective on why the existing tools, despite their power, are increasingly ill‑suited for smaller teams and individual creators. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because "the opportunity now" didn’t exist just a few years ago. He argues that advances in AI‑assisted programming allow developers to start building from a clean slate while still benefiting from a high degree of guidance and control, enabling rapid delivery of full‑featured experiences.
Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they are integrating is not the “prompt‑to‑image” style that dominates popular discourse. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. "AI can reason about large amounts of data and code very well," he says. By designing the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system, a bespoke animation pipeline, or any other feature without being confined to a limited scripting layer.
The goal is to let creators harness AI to accelerate extensions, not to replace the creative process. One of the driving forces behind Immens is the increasingly hostile economics of game development. Brussee describes the current climate as "rough," noting that production budgets keep climbing while the risk of failure grows. He asks whether the industry can discover more efficient workflows that reduce cost, shrink team size, and shorten time‑to‑market, thereby protecting studios from financial ruin.
De Jong, the chief product officer, echoes this sentiment, pointing out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has provided a solid foundation, he believes the next phase must be defined by innovation rather than incremental improvements. According to De Jong, many existing engines impose a monolithic approach: developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. By contrast, an AI‑aware engine can morph to the user’s needs.
He envisions a system where developers can swap components, append new modules, and craft bespoke tools that match their personal workflows—down to the exact shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set required for a specific project. This level of flexibility, he argues, is essential for fostering creativity in a rapidly evolving industry. Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it is "really powerful," it can also veer off course if not carefully supervised.
Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can see exactly what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable results. This visibility allows developers to create disposable, task‑specific tools—such as a rapid character generator—that can be used a handful of times and then discarded, dramatically cutting the cost of what used to be weeks‑long manual work. Immens is deliberately built to avoid imposing a single workflow. De Jong stresses that the framework and architecture are designed to let users decide how much AI to employ and where to apply it.
The engine also embraces open standards, meaning that files are stored in text‑based formats that any tool can read. This openness enables seamless integration with popular software like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI suite, creating a "smarter interface" across the entire development stack. Brussee notes that many engines remain closed ecosystems, hindering interoperability, whereas Immens aims to be a connective tissue that lets diverse tools communicate effortlessly.
The broader conversation around AI in games is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a simple prompt can spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world, fueling fear and backlash. The Immens team, however, views AI as a powerful assistant rather than a magical button.
Valient believes that AI will make both blockbuster titles and indie experiments better by augmenting human talent, even if the technology currently carries negative connotations due to its disruptive scale. Economic anxieties also linger, especially concerns that the AI boom might be a bubble.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, arguing that while many companies will fail, the underlying technology—just like the internet—will endure. Immens’ strategy is to focus on building a solid engine first; AI serves to accelerate development and broaden creative horizons, not to be the sole selling point.
Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the founders are committed to delivering a product that stands on its own merits. Funding for Immens is still in its early stages. The founders have secured "first commitments" but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the target amount as "reasonable." Brussee warns that excessive capital can breed complacency, preferring a lean operation that forces the team to stay scrappy and innovative.
Currently, Immens consists of the three founders plus a handful of helpers, a deliberately small team to maintain agility while tackling the complex task of engine development. Balancing team size with ambition is a constant challenge.
De Jong explains that building an engine is not a problem that can be solved by throwing a million engineers at it; it requires thoughtful decisions and iterative progress. At the same time, there is a limited window of opportunity as AI reshapes the industry. The founders are therefore trying to hit the sweet spot: enough funding and talent to capitalize on the moment, but not so much that the project loses focus.
Immens is working toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The team aims to release this demo within the month, already having accelerated their timeline dramatically—what was initially projected to take until the end of the year is now expected in a fraction of that time. This rapid progress underscores the potential efficiency gains that AI can bring to engine development.
The business model remains under discussion. While Immens admires Epic Games’ "we succeed when you succeed" licensing philosophy, Brussee says it is too early to make definitive statements about pricing or revenue sharing. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward, encouraging risk‑taking, artistic expression, and innovative gameplay.
As Brussee puts it, "We all love games. We want to see more creativity and more risk‑taking. Hopefully we can see innovation in games that will be built on this kind of tech.
That would be amazing."