For many years, Unity and Unreal have ruled the game‑development landscape, accounting for roughly 70 % of Steam releases 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 settled into a duopoly. Yet three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—believe there is still space for a fresh engine, and they see an opportunity to improve the status quo.
The founders of Immens bring résumés that read like a who’s‑who of modern game‑making: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is right for a new engine because “the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply aren’t enough anymore.” He points to AI‑assisted programming as a catalyst that can let developers start from a clean slate while still retaining strong guidance and control, enabling rapid delivery of fully‑featured experiences. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that their use of AI is not the typical “prompt‑to‑asset” hype that dominates headlines. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible.
“AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets,” he explains. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo creators or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—like a bespoke particle effect—without being limited to a handful of scripting hooks.” This philosophy aims to give developers the freedom to extend the engine quickly, using AI as an accelerator rather than a replacement for human creativity. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic pressures of the games market, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Development budgets are inflating, and the risk of financial failure is growing for studios of all sizes.
“We need new ways of working that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and shorten timelines,” he says. The goal is to break the cycle where ever‑larger budgets become a barrier to entry and a source of existential risk for developers. De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated.
While this has provided a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry is facing a set of challenges, and simply repeating the old formula won’t solve them,” he argues. He criticizes the monolithic nature of current engines, which force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows. With AI, Immens aims to deliver a malleable engine that molds itself around the user’s needs, allowing developers to swap, append, or modify components at will.
De Jong envisions a scenario where a developer can craft a tailor‑made toolset—complete with custom shortcuts, interfaces, and features—that aligns perfectly with a specific project’s requirements. Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. “If you don’t keep an eye on it, the system can go off the rails quickly,” he warns.
To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep the user in the driver’s seat. Every AI‑generated action is logged, repeatable, and transparent, so developers always know what the engine is doing and why.
This traceability enables rapid iteration: a designer might imagine five characters with a particular trait, generate them in minutes over coffee, reuse the tool for similar tasks, and discard it when it’s no longer needed—something that previously could have taken weeks of manual labor. Flexibility is a core tenet of Immens. The engine does not impose a single workflow; instead, it offers a modular architecture that lets teams decide how much AI to incorporate and where. De Jong stresses that the framework must be robust enough to support diverse pipelines while still being open to customization.
To facilitate interoperability, Immens adopts open standards and text‑based file formats, making it easy for external tools like Blender, Maya, or other generative systems to plug in seamlessly. “When files are plain text, any program can read them,” Brussee notes.
“That openness is a huge advantage over the closed, proprietary ecosystems of many existing engines.” The broader conversation about AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the idea of “click‑to‑game” engines that could produce Grand Theft Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt. Immens’ team tempers such expectations, positioning AI as a powerful assistant rather than a magic wand.
Valient believes AI will elevate the entire industry by making creators more capable, even if the technology currently carries negative connotations due to its disruptive speed. Economic anxieties also swirl around the AI boom, with fears of a bubble and inflated valuations. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet persisted and thrived. He argues that Immens is focused on building a solid engine first; AI simply accelerates development and expands creative horizons.
Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the team’s pragmatic outlook is that the technology isn’t disappearing anytime soon. Funding for Immens is still in its early stages. The founders have secured “first commitments” but have not disclosed amounts, describing the target as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against over‑funding, noting that excess capital can breed complacency and erode the scrappy mindset essential for a startup.
The company remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explains the delicate balance: a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be tackled by a massive team overnight, yet timing is crucial to capture the window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations; what they thought would take a year is now progressing at double speed. As for the business model, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing approach but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy. Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will enable a new wave of artistic risk‑taking and innovation in games.
“We love games as complex expressions of art,” Brussee says. “We want to see more creativity, more daring projects, and we hope our technology can be the foundation for that next generation of experiences.
That would be amazing."