For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the de facto platforms for game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles launched on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have made noticeable strides, the majority of large publishers still lean on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example. In this landscape, the market for game engines appears largely consolidated.
Enter Immens, a fledgling venture founded by three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient. Their résumés read like a who's‑who of modern game development: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple.
Together they argue that the status quo leaves ample room for a fresh engine that not only competes on features but also rethinks the way developers work. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee highlighted a timing advantage: “There’s an opportunity now to build a new engine that didn’t exist a couple of years ago.” He believes that advances in AI‑assisted programming make it possible to start from a clean slate without sacrificing speed or stability. “With a lot of guidance and control, you can build something that delivers full functionality quickly,” he explained. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they employ is not the typical "prompt‑to‑code" gimmick that dominates headlines.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “AI can reason over massive amounts of data and source code,” he said. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or a bespoke animation pipeline without being limited to superficial scripting.” This philosophy aims to give creators the power to extend the engine as naturally as they would extend a library in any programming language. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic pressures of the games sector.
Brussee describes the environment as "rough," noting that development costs keep climbing and that many studios struggle to break even. "We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines," he argued.
The goal is to reduce financial risk for developers, allowing them to focus on creativity rather than endless resource crunches. De Jong, the chief product officer, points out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that stability has provided a solid foundation, he believes the industry now needs genuine innovation. "Continuing to do things exactly as we have in the past won’t solve the challenges we face," he said.
"We need a different approach, one that embraces flexibility and adaptability." One of the pain points with existing engines, according to De Jong, is their monolithic nature. Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid toolchains. By contrast, Immens envisions an engine that bends to the user’s workflow. "It must be extremely flexible," he noted.
"You should be able to swap components, append new modules, or craft entirely custom tools that match your personal shortcuts, UI preferences, and project requirements." Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While its power can dramatically speed up tasks, it can also produce unexpected results if left unchecked.
To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep the user in the driver’s seat. "You always know what the engine is doing, you can trace its history, and you can reproduce results reliably," he said. This transparency is intended to make AI‑generated assets trustworthy and repeatable.
The team also stresses that Immens does not force a single workflow on its users. De Jong emphasized that the framework and underlying architecture are deliberately modular, allowing developers to decide how much AI assistance they want and where to apply it.
"You can choose to rely heavily on AI for certain pipelines while keeping others entirely manual," he explained. Interoperability is another cornerstone of the project. By adopting open, text‑based standards, Immens aims to play nicely with the broader ecosystem of tools such as Blender, Maya, and other generative software.
"When files are human‑readable, any program can parse them," Brussee said. "Our AI can read those files, manipulate them, and feed them back into the engine, creating a seamless pipeline across different applications." There is a vocal backlash against AI in game development, with some pundits warning that future tools could let anyone conjure a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience with a single prompt.
Immens’ founders acknowledge the hype but view AI primarily as a productivity enhancer rather than a replacement for human creativity. Valient believes that AI will make developers better, not obsolete. "The technology has negative connotations now because it’s disrupting at an unprecedented scale," he said. "But ultimately it’s just another tool, like any other software we’ve built over the decades." Economic concerns also swirl around AI, with many questioning whether the current surge represents a bubble.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many startups vanished, the underlying internet persisted and flourished. "AI isn’t going away," he asserted. "Our focus is on building a solid engine; the AI simply accelerates our development and lets us dream bigger.
Whether the market is in a bubble is unknown, but history shows that useful technology survives even after speculative hype collapses." Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its first round of commitments but has not disclosed the exact amount, describing it as "reasonable." Brussee cautions against over‑capitalization, warning that excess cash can breed complacency.
"Startups need to stay scrappy," he laughed, emphasizing that a lean team forces disciplined decision‑making. The company currently consists of the three founders plus a handful of auxiliary contributors. This small size is intentional; building an engine is a complex undertaking that does not benefit from throwing a massive workforce at it.
De Jong explains the balance: "You need a focused team to make critical architectural decisions, yet you also need enough resources to hit the market window created by AI’s rise. It’s a delicate trade‑off." Immens is racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that will showcase a full editing workflow powered by generative AI. The team aims to release this demo within the month, already having accelerated their timeline dramatically.
"When we started in April, we thought we’d be at the end of the year," Brussee recalled. "We’re now twice as fast as expected, which makes timeline predictions tricky." The business model is still under discussion. While Immens appreciates Epic Games’ revenue‑share philosophy—"we succeed when you succeed"—the founders admit it’s too early to commit to a specific pricing structure.
Their priority remains delivering a high‑quality, flexible engine that empowers creators. Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will spark a new wave of artistic risk‑taking in the industry. "We love games and want to see more daring, expressive experiences," Brussee concluded. "If our technology can help studios push boundaries and innovate, that would be amazing."