For more than a decade, Unity and Unreal have been the de facto platforms for creating the majority of titles on PC, with roughly 70% of Steam releases in 2025 built on one of those two engines. While the open‑source Godot engine has enjoyed a surge in popularity and some studios cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been a duopoly. Against this backdrop, three seasoned developers—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a new AI‑enhanced game engine that they believe can break the cycle of ever‑rising costs and shrinking creative freedom. The founders’ résumés read like a roll call of the industry’s elite.
Brussee helped create the original Doom engine and later co‑founded Guerrilla Games, De Jong spent years at Epic Games shaping Unreal, and Valient has held senior roles at Apple and other high‑tech firms. Their combined experience spans the biggest names in gaming, from Epic to Capcom, giving them a rare perspective on why the current engine landscape feels both mature and stagnant. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a fresh engine because "the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply don’t exist anymore"—especially when you factor in AI‑assisted programming.
He argues that AI can give developers the ability to start from a clean slate while still benefiting from guided, repeatable processes. "With a lot of guidance and control, you can build something that delivers full functionality quickly," he said.
Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, is careful to distinguish his company’s approach from the hype‑driven notion of "prompt‑to‑game" that dominates many AI discussions. For Immens, AI is a means of making the engine itself more extensible. "The AI can reason about massive code bases and data sets. If we design the architecture with that in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke physics module without rewriting large sections of the core," he explained.
This extensibility is meant to empower smaller teams to tailor the engine to their specific artistic and technical needs, rather than forcing them to conform to a monolithic, one‑size‑fits‑all workflow. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the harsh economics of modern game development. Brussee described the current climate as "rough" and warned that production budgets are spiraling upward, making it harder for independent studios to survive. He asked, "Can we find new ways of working?
Can we find more efficient ways of working, to help decrease the cost and make games with fewer people in a faster time with smaller budgets so you're not risking your livelihood, your studio, everything?" The answer, he believes, lies in leveraging AI to streamline repetitive tasks and accelerate iteration cycles. De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine market has entered a phase of "standardisation and consolidation" that, while providing a solid foundation, also stifles innovation.
"Continuing to do things exactly as we have before isn’t enough," he said. "We need innovation, not just standardisation. There must be a different way." One of the key criticisms De Jong levels at existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers often have to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which can be a barrier to creativity.
By contrast, Immens aims to be a flexible substrate that users can reshape. "You can interchange, append, modify, and even create your own tools that match your personal workflow," he noted.
He gave an example of building a custom editor with shortcuts, UI layouts, and feature sets that reflect the unique needs of his team and project. Valient acknowledges that AI is not a silver bullet. While he calls it "really powerful," he warns that it can "go off the rails quickly if you don't pay attention." To mitigate this risk, Immens is being built with transparency and control at its core.
Users will always be able to see what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and reproduce results reliably. This level of auditability is intended to keep the creative process grounded and prevent the black‑box pitfalls that have plagued other AI‑driven tools. The practical benefits of such control become evident when tackling mundane but time‑consuming tasks.
Valient illustrated a scenario where a developer needs to generate five characters with a specific trait. In a traditional pipeline, this could take weeks of manual work. With Immens, a developer could draft the concept over a coffee break, let the AI generate the assets, and then reuse the tool multiple times before discarding it.
This rapid prototyping capability, he argues, dramatically lowers the cost of experimentation and encourages risk‑taking. Flexibility extends beyond workflow to integration with other software.
Immens is being built around open standards and text‑based file formats, allowing seamless interoperability with tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI service. "When files are text‑based, anything can read them," Brussee said. "The AI can read files and do things with them.
More companies are adopting open standards, which makes it easier for engines to talk to each other." The broader industry reaction to AI in game development is mixed. Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, fueling fear that AI will replace human creativity.
Immens’ founders take a more measured stance. While they acknowledge that "click‑to‑game" engines could eventually emerge, they view AI primarily as a productivity enhancer. "The big games and everything in between will be done because AI made everybody better," Valient said. He stressed that AI is a tool, and like any tool, it can be misused, but the responsibility lies with developers to apply it ethically.
Economic anxieties also swirl around the AI boom, with many questioning whether the sector is a bubble. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies will fail, the underlying technology will endure.
"AI isn’t going away. The internet didn’t disappear after the dot‑com crash.
Good products survive because they’re simply good," he remarked. Immens’ strategy, therefore, is to focus on building a high‑quality engine first, using AI to accelerate development and expand creative horizons, rather than chasing hype.
Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as "reasonable." Brussee cautioned against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency. "There’s always a danger with being a startup that you can have too much money.
You also get lazy, when you need to be scrappy," he laughed. The team itself is intentionally lean: the three founders plus a handful of helpers. De Jong explained that building an engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be rushed by simply adding hundreds of engineers.
A small, focused group can make deliberate architectural decisions and iterate quickly, which is crucial given the narrow window of opportunity presented by the current AI wave. Immens is already moving toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases "the flow of editing something" using generative AI.
The demo is slated for release this month, and the team reports that they have progressed twice as fast as initially projected. "We thought it would take us until the end of the year; we’re already ahead of schedule," Brussee said, underscoring the speed gains they attribute to AI‑assisted development. Business‑model discussions are still in early stages.
While Immens admires Epic Games' revenue‑share model—"we succeed when you succeed"—they have not committed to any specific approach yet. The founders remain focused on delivering a tool that empowers creators, hoping that a sustainable model will emerge organically as the engine gains traction. In the end, the trio’s vision is simple: give developers the freedom to innovate without being shackled by cost or inflexible pipelines. "We love games, we love complex artistic expression, and we want to see more risk‑taking," Brussee concluded.
"If Immens can help push the industry forward and enable new kinds of creativity, that would be amazing."