For years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to platforms for game creators, accounting for roughly 70% of all Steam releases in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides and some 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, a startup founded by three industry heavyweights: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game development, featuring stints at Epic Games (the makers of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together they believe there is still room for a fresh engine that addresses the shortcomings of existing tools. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform. "A few years ago the idea of an AI‑enhanced engine didn’t exist.
Now, with AI‑assisted programming, we can start building from the ground up again and deliver full‑featured functionality much faster," he said. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that their use of AI is not about generating assets with a single prompt.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. "If we design the engine with AI in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or any other feature without being limited to basic scripting," he explained.
"The AI helps reason about large codebases, so extensions can be created quickly and reliably." The motivation behind this ambitious project stems from the current economic climate of game development, which Brussee describes as "rough." Development costs keep climbing, making it harder for small studios to survive. "We need new, more efficient ways of working that lower budgets and reduce risk for creators," he argued.
The trio sees AI as a lever to accelerate iteration, cut down on repetitive tasks, and enable teams to produce high‑quality experiences with fewer people. De Jong, the chief product officer, pointed out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that stability provides a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. "The industry faces many challenges, and simply repeating the old playbook won’t solve them.
We need a different approach—one that embraces flexibility and creativity," he said. A key criticism of current engines is their monolithic nature. Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and workflows, which can be restrictive.
De Jong believes AI can flip this dynamic, allowing the engine to adapt to the developer rather than the other way around. "You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and tailor the interface to exactly match your team's needs," he noted. "Imagine building a custom toolset with shortcuts and features designed for your specific project—AI can help you do that in days instead of weeks." Valient acknowledges that AI is powerful but also volatile. "If you don’t keep an eye on it, the system can go off the rails," he warned.
To mitigate this, Immens is building transparency into the engine: users can see what the AI is doing, review its decision history, and ensure repeatable outcomes. This level of control, he says, turns AI from a black box into a reliable collaborator. The flexibility of Immens extends to workflow choices. De Jong stresses that the engine does not force a single pipeline on its users.
"You decide how much AI you want to involve and where it fits into your process. The architecture is open enough to let you shape your own development rhythm," he explained. Interoperability is another pillar of Immens’ design.
By embracing open, text‑based standards, the engine can easily exchange data with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI system. "When files are human‑readable, the AI can parse and manipulate them directly," Brussee said. This openness contrasts with many proprietary engines that act as closed ecosystems, making integration cumbersome.
There is a vocal backlash against AI in game creation, fueled by sensational claims that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience. Immens’ founders see such "click‑to‑game" visions as far‑off possibilities, not immediate realities.
For them, AI is a powerful tool that augments human creativity, not a replacement for it. "AI makes everyone better, but it remains a tool that must be used responsibly," Valient affirmed.
Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with some labeling the sector a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; only the weaker players fell away.
"We’re focused on building a genuinely good engine. AI helps us iterate faster and dream bigger, but the core product must stand on its own merits," he said. Funding details remain vague.
Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable." Brussee cautions against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency. "Startups need to stay scrappy; too much money can make you lazy," he laughed. The company remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers. This intentional size allows rapid decision‑making and tight coordination, which is crucial for a complex undertaking like building a game engine.
De Jong explains the balancing act: "You can’t throw a million developers at an engine and expect it to work. You need a focused team to make thoughtful choices, yet you also need enough resources to seize the window of opportunity that AI presents." Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month. The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations: "We thought we’d need until year‑end, but we’re two‑times faster than anticipated," Brussee reported. As for 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.
The ultimate goal, according to Brussee, is 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 technology can help make that happen, it would be amazing," he concluded.