For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to tools for game creators, accounting for roughly 70% of the titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source options like Godot have made notable strides, and a handful of large studios continue to rely on proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely been a duopoly dominated by the two giants. Enter Immens, a fledgling company founded by three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—who believe there is still space for a fresh engine that tackles the shortcomings of the status quo. Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of game development, with experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform that simply did not exist a few years ago. "With AI‑assisted programming we can start building from the ground up again," he said.
"Guided, yet flexible, tools let us deliver full‑featured functionality at a rapid pace." Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, stresses that the AI they employ is not the generative, prompt‑driven kind that dominates headlines. Instead, it serves as a structural aid, making the engine highly extensible. "AI can analyse massive codebases and data sets efficiently.
If we design the architecture with that capability in mind, even solo developers or tiny teams can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle effect—without wrestling with opaque scripting layers," he explained. This approach aims to let creators harness AI to accelerate extensions rather than rely on it to conjure entire games from a single sentence. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic climate of game development, which Brussee describes as "rough." Production budgets are ballooning, and the risk of financial ruin for small studios is growing.
"We need new, more efficient workflows that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and shorten timelines," he argued. The goal is to break the cycle where escalating expenses force developers into ever‑riskier bets.
De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has provided a solid foundation, the industry now faces a series of challenges that cannot be solved by simply iterating on existing tools. "We need innovation, not more of the same," he said.
He criticises the "monolithic" nature of current engines, where developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines. By contrast, an AI‑aware engine could adapt to the user’s workflow, allowing interchangeable modules, custom shortcuts, and tailor‑made interfaces that match each project’s unique demands. Valient acknowledges AI’s power but warns that it can quickly go off‑track if left unchecked.
Immens therefore places control firmly in the hands of the user. Every action taken by the engine is logged, reproducible, and transparent, enabling developers to understand exactly how a tool arrived at a result. This is especially valuable for repetitive tasks—like generating a set of characters with specific traits—that previously required weeks of manual effort. With AI assistance, a developer could sketch the concept over coffee, run the tool, and obtain a usable asset in minutes, dramatically cutting costs.
Flexibility is baked into Immens’ core philosophy. De Jong emphasizes that the framework does not enforce a single workflow; instead, it offers a scaffold that developers can shape as they see fit, deciding how much AI to involve and where. To foster interoperability, Immens adopts open standards and text‑based file formats, allowing seamless integration with popular tools such as Blender, Maya, or any generative asset pipeline.
"When everything speaks a common language, the AI can read, modify, and exchange data effortlessly," Brussee noted. The broader conversation around AI in games 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 views such visions as far‑off possibilities, insisting that AI should be treated as a powerful assistant rather than a magical creator. "AI makes everyone better, not a substitute for human creativity," Valient said. De Jong added that responsible use of AI is an industry duty, just as any tool can be misused if left unchecked. Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with fears of a speculative bubble inflating valuations.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many startups vanished, the underlying internet survived and flourished. He believes Immens’ focus on building a genuinely useful engine will help it endure regardless of market hype. "We’re not chasing a bubble; we’re building a solid product that leverages AI to speed up development and enable bigger dreams," he asserted.
Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing the target as "reasonable".
Brussee cautions against excessive capital, warning that it can breed complacency and diminish the scrappy mindset essential for early‑stage innovation. The company currently consists of the three founders plus a handful of helpers, deliberately staying lean to retain agility. Balancing team size with ambition is a delicate act. De Jong explains that a game engine is a complex undertaking that cannot be solved by throwing a million developers at it.
A small, focused group can make deliberate decisions and iterate quickly, which is crucial given the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise. "We need enough resources to hit that sweet spot, but not so many that we lose the ability to move fast," he said. Immens is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release this month. The timeline has already outpaced their original expectations—what they thought would take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time.
While the exact business model remains under discussion, Brussee admires Epic’s developer‑first approach and hints that Immens may adopt a similar philosophy when the time is right. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward.
"We love games and want to see more daring, artistic expression," Brussee concluded. "If our technology helps studios take bigger creative risks and innovate, that would be amazing."