For many years, the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines: Unity and Unreal. In 2025, roughly seventy percent of all titles released on Steam were built with one of those two tools. While the open‑source Godot engine has enjoyed a surge in popularity, and a handful of large studios continue to rely on proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely settled into a duopoly. Enter Immens, a fledgling company founded by three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still room for a fresh approach.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of modern game development: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. Together they aim to challenge the status quo with an engine that leverages artificial intelligence not as a gimmick, but as a core architectural principle. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because “the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply don’t address the problems developers face today.” He argues that AI‑assisted programming can restore the ability to start projects from a clean slate, offering “full functionality quickly while keeping a high degree of guidance and control.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they employ is not the kind that generates assets from a single prompt.
Instead, it is designed to make the engine itself highly extensible. “AI can reason over large codebases and data sets,” he says. “If we build 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 limited to a tiny scripting layer.” This vision positions AI as a productivity multiplier, enabling developers to prototype and iterate faster than ever before. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the harsh economic realities of modern game production.
Brussee describes the current climate as “rough,” noting that development costs continue to climb, pushing many studios toward unsustainable risk. “We need new ways of working that reduce budgets, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he asserts.
The goal is to break the cycle where a single misstep can jeopardize an entire studio’s livelihood. De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation has provided 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. “We need genuine innovation, not more of the same.” He criticizes the monolithic nature of existing engines, which force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. With AI, Immens aims to deliver a platform that bends to the user’s needs, allowing developers to swap components, append new modules, and craft tools that match their personal workflows down to the exact shortcuts and UI layout they prefer. Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword.
While it is “really powerful,” it can also “go off the rails” if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immens is built with transparency at its core: users can see exactly what the engine is doing, track its decision history, and reproduce results reliably.
This level of control is crucial for creative pipelines where a designer might need to generate five characters with specific traits in minutes rather than weeks, then discard the temporary tooling once the job is done. Flexibility is a recurring theme. De Jong stresses that Immens does not impose a single workflow. “It’s up to you how much AI you want to use and where you apply it,” he explains.
The architecture is deliberately modular, allowing teams to decide the balance between manual coding and AI assistance. Moreover, the engine embraces open standards, making it easy to interoperate with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI suite. By using text‑based file formats, the engine enables AI to read, modify, and integrate external assets seamlessly, fostering a more collaborative ecosystem. The broader conversation around AI in game development is polarized.
Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale experience, fueling fears of a “click‑to‑game” apocalypse. Immens’s founders temper these expectations, positioning AI as a sophisticated tool rather than a replacement for human creativity. “Big games and everything in between will be made better because AI makes everybody more capable,” says Valient.
He emphasizes that, like any technology, AI can be misused, but the responsibility lies with developers to apply it ethically. Economic concerns also loom large. Critics worry that the AI boom may be a bubble with inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet persisted and flourished.
“AI isn’t going away,” he asserts. “Our focus is on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our development and lets us dream bigger.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee warns against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency.
The team intentionally stays lean—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—to remain scrappy and agile. De Jong explains the delicate balance: a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by throwing a million developers at it, yet a window of opportunity exists as AI reshapes the industry. The company must scale just enough to capture that moment without overextending. Currently, Immens is working toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow.
The prototype is slated for release later this month, already delivering results twice as fast as the original timeline projected when the project began in April. Regarding the business model, Brussee admires Epic Games’ philosophy of “we succeed when you succeed,” but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. The ultimate ambition, however, is clear: to empower creators to push the boundaries of interactive art. “We love games and want to see more risk‑taking, more creativity,” Brussee concludes.
“If our technology can help bring that vision to life, that would be amazing.”