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 platforms. While open‑source options such as Godot have begun to attract more attention, and a handful of large studios still rely on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been a duopoly. Enter Immens, a fledgling startup 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 game‑tech history, with 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 built around artificial intelligence. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. “With AI‑assisted programming, you can start building from scratch again,” he said.
“With the right guidance and control, you can create a fully functional system much faster than before.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they are integrating is not the kind that generates entire games from a single prompt. Instead, it serves as a powerful extensibility layer. “AI can reason over large codebases and data sets,” he noted.
“If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can add custom features—like a bespoke particle system—without being limited to tiny script tweaks.” This philosophy underpins their vision of an engine that developers can shape, rather than a monolithic tool that forces them to adapt. The motivation behind Immens is also economic.
Brussee described the current climate as “rough”: development costs keep climbing, making it harder for studios to stay viable. “We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he argued. “Otherwise you risk everything—your studio, your livelihood.” De Jong, the chief product officer, echoed this sentiment, pointing out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation has provided a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“The industry now faces many challenges, and simply repeating the old formulas won’t cut it,” he said. “What we need is genuine innovation, not more of the same.” One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the “monolithic approach” of existing engines. Developers often have to work within rigid pipelines, dealing with proprietary file formats and limited customization.
With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, delivering a platform that molds itself to the developer’s workflow. “Flexibility is key,” he explained. “You should be able to swap components, append new ones, and build tools that match exactly how you work—down to the shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set.” Valient is realistic about AI’s limits.
While he praised its power, he warned that unchecked AI can quickly go off‑track. To counter this, Immens is built with transparency and control at its core. Users will always see what the engine is doing, have a full history of actions, and be able to reproduce results reliably. This level of oversight, he believes, turns AI from a black box into a trustworthy assistant.
The practical impact of this approach is illustrated by a simple example: generating five characters with a specific trait. In traditional pipelines, this might take weeks of manual work.
With Immens, a developer could sketch the requirement over coffee, let the AI generate the assets, use the result a handful of times, and discard the temporary tool afterward—dramatically reducing cost and time. Immens’s architecture deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow. De Jong emphasized that teams can decide how much AI to incorporate and where. The engine’s open‑standard file formats further enhance interoperability.
“When files are plain text, any tool can read them,” Brussee said. “Our AI can parse those files, interact with Blender, Maya, or any generative system, because everything speaks the same language.” This openness addresses a long‑standing frustration with engines that act as closed ecosystems. The broader AI debate in game development is heated.
Some critics warn of a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale experience, turning developers into mere operators. Immens’s founders acknowledge that “click‑to‑game” concepts may eventually appear, but they view AI primarily as a productivity enhancer. “AI will make everyone better,” Valient asserted.
“It’s a tool, not a replacement, and like any tool it can be misused—but it also has the power to unlock new creativity.” Economic anxieties also linger, especially around the possibility of an AI bubble. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era: many companies will fall, but the underlying technology will endure. “We’re focused on building a solid engine,” he said. “AI helps us iterate faster and dream bigger, but the core product must stand on its own merits.” Funding remains modest.
Immens has secured its first round of commitments, though the exact amount is undisclosed and described only as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against over‑capitalization, noting that excess money can breed complacency. “Startups need to stay scrappy,” he laughed. “Too much cash can make you lazy.” The team itself is tiny—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers. This lean structure is intentional, allowing rapid decision‑making while avoiding the inefficiencies of a massive workforce.
De Jong explained the balancing act: “Building an engine is complex, but you don’t need a million developers. You need a focused group that can iterate quickly and seize the current window of opportunity created by AI’s rise.” Immens is currently targeting 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 until year‑end is now arriving roughly twice as fast.
Regarding the business model, Brussee hinted that Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing philosophy, but he stressed that it’s still too early to make concrete commitments. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering risk‑taking and artistic expression. “We love games and want to see more daring, innovative titles,” Brussee concluded. “If our technology can help make that happen, it would be amazing."