For years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles launched on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have made notable strides, most large studios still cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—leaving the market largely monopolised by the two giants. Enter Immens, a fledgling venture founded by three seasoned veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still room for a fresh engine that can address the shortcomings of the status quo. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together, they aim to challenge the entrenched players with a platform built around artificial intelligence. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right: “There’s an opportunity now to build a new engine that didn’t exist a couple of years ago. With AI‑assisted programming, you can start building things from scratch again, under tight guidance, and get full‑featured results quickly.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the “prompt‑and‑receive‑art” model that dominates headlines.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. “AI can reason about large codebases and data sets,” he said.
“If we design the engine with that in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can extend it beyond simple scripting. Want a custom particle system? You can add it directly.
That’s how we’re leveraging AI—to let users build and adapt faster.” The motivation behind this AI‑centric approach is the increasingly hostile economics of game creation. Brussee described the current climate as “rough,” noting that development costs keep climbing and the risk of financial ruin grows for small studios.
“We need new ways of working, more efficient pipelines that let us make games with fewer people, less time, and smaller budgets, so developers aren’t gambling their livelihoods,” he argued. De Jong, the chief product officer, observed that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation provides a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation. “The industry faces many challenges, and repeating the old methods won’t solve them,” he said.
“We need innovation, not more standardisation.” One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the monolithic nature of existing engines. Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid workflows, which can be a barrier to creativity. With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, offering an engine that adapts to the developer rather than the other way around.
“It has to be flexible—swap components, append new tools, modify interfaces. I can craft a toolset that matches my personal workflow, complete with shortcuts and UI that suit my team’s needs,” he explained.
Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked. To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep the user in control, providing full transparency over what the AI does and a complete history of its actions. “You know exactly what the engine is doing and can reproduce it,” he said.
“If you need five characters with a specific trait, you used to spend weeks planning. Now you can prototype over coffee, reuse the tool a handful of times, and discard it when you’re done—saving huge amounts of time and money.” Flexibility is a core design principle.
De Jong stressed that Immens does not force a single workflow on its users. “You decide how much AI you want to employ and where,” he noted. “The architecture is open enough that you can plug in your preferred AI modules, or opt out entirely.” Interoperability is another priority.
By embracing open standards and text‑based file formats, Immens ensures that assets from tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline can be read and manipulated without friction. “When files are text‑based, any program can parse them. The AI can read and act on them, creating smarter interfaces across the entire toolchain,” Brussee said. “That level of openness has been missing from many proprietary engines.” The broader conversation around AI in game development is fraught with hype and backlash.
Some pundits on LinkedIn claim that future engines will let anyone conjure a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world with a single prompt. Immens’s team acknowledges the allure of “click‑to‑game” fantasies but frames AI as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity.
“Big games will still be made because AI makes everyone better,” Valient asserted. “The current negative perception stems from the sheer scale of disruption AI brings.” De Jong added a responsible‑use mantra: “AI is a tool like any other. It can be misused, but it’s our duty to guide it toward productive outcomes.” Economic concerns also surface, with many questioning whether AI‑focused startups are part of a bubble. Valient compared the situation to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst; many companies fell, but the technology endured.
We’re building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our development and expands our imagination.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its first round of commitments, though the exact amount is undisclosed and described as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The company remains lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—by design. “Building an engine is complex, but you can’t throw a million developers at it and expect miracles,” De Jong explained.
“We need a focused team to make deliberate decisions, yet we must be large enough to seize the window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise.” The team is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month. Their timeline has already outpaced initial expectations: “We thought we’d need until year‑end; we’re already twice as fast,” Brussee reported. As for the business model, Immens is still exploring options. While they admire Epic Games’ “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy, they admit it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue structure.
Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to push the medium forward. “We love games and want to see more daring, artistic expression,” Brussee concluded. “If our technology can help developers take bigger risks and innovate, that would be amazing.”