For years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to platforms for video‑game creators, accounting for roughly 70 % of the titles launched on Steam in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have gained traction and some studios cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been a duopoly dominated by the two giants. Into this landscape step three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who have founded Immens with the belief that a fresh engine is not only possible but necessary.
The three founders bring an impressive résumé: experience at Epic Games (the makers of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, Apple, and other heavyweight studios. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is right for a new engine because “the opportunity didn’t exist a couple of years ago.” He sees AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that lets developers start from a clean slate while still retaining tight guidance and control, enabling rapid delivery of fully functional features. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, stresses that the AI they employ is not the “prompt‑to‑art” gimmick that dominates headlines.
Instead, their AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. "AI can reason over large codebases and data sets very well," he explains.
"If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or any other feature without being confined to a limited scripting layer. The AI helps you extend the engine faster, not replace the developer." The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of game development, which Brussee describes as "rough." Production budgets are inflating, and the risk of financial ruin for small studios is growing. He asks whether new workflows can break this cycle, allowing teams to ship games faster, with fewer people and lower budgets. De Jong, the chief product officer, echoes this sentiment, noting that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While that stability provides a solid foundation, the industry now needs genuine innovation rather than incremental tweaks. One of De Jong’s primary criticisms of existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers must adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, limiting creative freedom.
With AI, Immens aims to deliver a malleable platform that conforms to the user’s workflow. "You can swap components, append new tools, or modify existing ones to suit your exact needs," he says. "Imagine building a custom UI with shortcuts tailored to your team’s habits—Immens lets you do that without fighting the engine’s default conventions." Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it is "really powerful," it can also "go off the rails" if left unchecked.
Immens therefore places the developer in full control, providing transparent histories of AI actions so outcomes are repeatable and auditable. This level of oversight means a designer could, for example, generate five characters with specific traits in minutes—a task that previously might have taken weeks—then discard the temporary tool once the job is done, dramatically reducing cost. Flexibility is baked into Immens’s core.
De Jong stresses that the engine does not impose a single workflow; users decide how much AI to integrate and where. The architecture is deliberately open, supporting interoperability with industry‑standard tools. Brussee points out that when files are stored in text‑based formats, any program can read them, and AI can manipulate those files directly. This openness enables seamless connections with software like Blender, Maya, or other generative pipelines, avoiding the "weird outlier" problem where proprietary engines refuse to speak the same language as surrounding tools.
The broader conversation about AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype a future where a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, fueling fear of "click‑to‑game" solutions. Immens’s team, however, views AI as a catalyst that makes developers better, not a replacement for human creativity.
Valient argues that AI’s current negative perception stems from its disruptive scale, but ultimately it is just another tool that must be wielded responsibly. Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with concerns that the sector resembles a bubble of inflated valuations.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; many companies fell, but the technology endured. Immens is focused on building a solid engine first, using AI to accelerate development and broaden creative horizons.
Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the founders are committed to delivering value regardless of external hype. Funding for Immens is still in an early stage. The company has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable." Brussee warns against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency, whereas a lean budget forces scrappiness and focus. The team remains small—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—by design.
De Jong explains that building an engine is a complex endeavor that cannot be rushed by throwing a million developers at it; a tight, iterative team is essential to make thoughtful decisions and seize the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing flow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced initial expectations: what was projected to take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time. While the business model is still being refined, Brussee admires Epic’s "we succeed when you succeed" licensing philosophy but admits it is too early to commit to a specific approach.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the medium forward. "We love games and the complex artistic expression they embody," Brussee says. "We want to see more creativity, more risk‑taking, and more innovation built on technology like ours.
If we can help make that happen, it would be amazing."