For years, Unity and Unreal have reigned supreme in the game‑development world, accounting for roughly 70% of Steam releases projected for 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have begun to gain traction, most major studios still lean on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—leaving the market largely dominated by the two giants. Enter Immens, a fledgling venture 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, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they argue that the current engine landscape, while stable, still has room for a fresh, more adaptable contender.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because “the tools that didn’t exist a couple of years ago are now within reach, especially with AI‑assisted programming.” He believes AI can give developers the ability to start from a clean slate, providing enough guidance to accelerate the delivery of fully functional features without the usual overhead. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that their use of AI isn’t about the flashy “prompt‑to‑asset” hype that dominates headlines.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “If we design the engine with AI reasoning in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke gameplay mechanic without wrestling with opaque scripting layers,” he says. The goal is to let creators extend the engine quickly, using AI as a productivity partner rather than a magical shortcut. The motivation behind this ambitious project stems from what Brussee describes as a “rough” market reality.
Game development costs continue to climb, making it increasingly difficult for small studios to survive. “We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and speed up production,” he argues. By cutting waste and leveraging AI‑driven automation, Immens hopes to break the cycle that forces developers into high‑risk, high‑investment gambles.
De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that stability offers a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry now faces a series of challenges, and simply repeating old methods won’t solve them,” he says.
He envisions a shift from monolithic, one‑size‑fits‑all engines to flexible platforms that adapt to each project’s unique demands. Current engines often force developers into proprietary file formats and rigid workflows.
De Jong believes AI can flip that script, allowing the engine to mold itself around the user. “You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and customize interfaces exactly the way you need them,” he explains.
This level of personalization could enable a designer to craft a toolset tailored to their background, complete with preferred shortcuts and UI layouts, ultimately streamlining the creative process. Valient acknowledges AI’s double‑edged nature. While it is “really powerful,” it can also veer off course if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency: users will always see what the engine is doing, retain a full history of actions, and be able to reproduce results reliably.
This control is crucial when, for example, a developer wants to generate five characters with specific traits in minutes rather than weeks, then discard the temporary tool afterward—something that would have been prohibitively expensive before. Flexibility is baked into Immens’ core philosophy. De Jong stresses that the engine does not impose a singular workflow; developers decide how much AI to employ and where.
The architecture is deliberately modular, allowing teams to pick and choose AI components that make sense for their pipeline while ensuring the underlying system understands the context correctly. Interoperability is another pillar of the design. By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens aims to speak fluently with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI suite. “When files are plain text, any program can read them, and the AI can manipulate them directly,” Brussee notes.
This openness counters the “weird outlier” problem where many engines lock users into closed ecosystems, hindering collaboration across different software. The broader AI conversation in game development is polarized. Some pundits on LinkedIn hype the idea of “click‑to‑game” experiences that could conjure Grand Theft Auto‑scale worlds from a single prompt.
Immens’ team, however, views AI as a sophisticated assistant rather than a replacement for human creativity. Valient asserts that AI will make developers better, not obsolete, and that the current negative sentiment stems from the disruptive speed of the technology. Economic concerns also swirl around AI, with skeptics warning of a bubble of overvalued startups. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the internet itself endured and flourished.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our ability to dream bigger and iterate faster,” he says. Whether the AI market is a bubble remains uncertain, but the team believes that genuine, useful products will survive regardless of hype cycles.
Funding for Immens is still in its early stages. The founders have secured “first commitments” but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The company intentionally remains lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—to stay scrappy and make deliberate decisions. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act.
De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex endeavor that cannot be rushed by simply hiring a massive workforce. Instead, a focused, small team can iterate thoughtfully, ensuring the product meets high standards while still capitalizing on the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced original estimates; what was projected to take until year‑end is now expected in a fraction of that time. Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy. Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the boundaries of interactive art, encouraging risk‑taking and fresh innovation. “Games are a complex expression of art, and we want to see more creativity and daring projects,” Brussee concludes.
“If our technology can help bring those visions to life, that would be amazing."