For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game development, together powering roughly 70% of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have begun to gain traction, the market still largely revolves around these two proprietary giants, with a few outliers such as Capcom’s in‑house RE Engine.
In this landscape, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have decided to challenge the status quo by founding Immens, a startup that aims to deliver a next‑generation, AI‑enhanced game engine. The founders’ résumés read like a who's‑who of modern game development. Brussee previously helped build the original Unreal Engine at Epic Games and later co‑founded Guerrilla Games, while De Jong has held senior roles at studios such as Boss Key and contributed to high‑profile projects at Apple. Valient, the chief technology officer, brings deep systems‑engineering expertise from his time at both Epic and a variety of indie ventures.
Together they argue that the engine market, though seemingly saturated, still leaves room for innovation—especially when artificial intelligence is leveraged as a core design principle rather than a gimmick. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a fresh engine.
"A few years ago the idea of an AI‑first engine would have sounded like science fiction. Today, with AI‑supported programming, we can start building from the ground up again while keeping tight control over the process," he said.
The vision is not to replace developers with a black‑box that generates games at the click of a button, but to give creators a set of powerful, extensible tools that accelerate routine tasks and open up new possibilities for smaller teams. Valient clarified that Immens’ AI is fundamentally about extensibility. "We’re not talking about prompting a model to write an entire game for you.
Instead, we design the codebase so that AI can reason about large amounts of data and help developers extend the engine quickly. If a solo creator wants a custom particle system, they can add it with a few lines of AI‑assisted code rather than rewriting large subsystems," he explained.
This approach aims to democratise engine modification, moving beyond the limited scripting interfaces that many current engines provide. The motivation behind this ambitious project stems from what Brussee describes as a "rough" market environment.
Development costs continue to climb, and the financial risk of launching a game has never been higher. "We need new ways of working that reduce budgets, shrink team sizes, and speed up production without sacrificing quality," he argued.
De Jong echoed this sentiment, noting that the engine ecosystem has become overly standardized and consolidated. While a solid foundation is valuable, the industry now faces challenges that demand genuine innovation rather than incremental updates. One of the pain points De Jong highlights is the monolithic nature of existing engines.
Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, limiting creative freedom. With AI at its core, Immens intends to be a pliable platform that adapts to the user’s workflow.
"You should be able to swap components, append new modules, or craft bespoke tools that match your personal shortcuts and interface preferences," he said. This flexibility could empower developers to build exactly the tools they need for a particular project, rather than contorting their ideas to fit a pre‑existing system. Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can become unpredictable if left unchecked.
To mitigate this, Immens is built with transparency in mind: users can see what the engine is doing, trace its decision‑making history, and ensure repeatable outcomes. He illustrated the potential with a hypothetical scenario: generating five characters with specific traits that would previously require weeks of manual work could now be prototyped over a coffee break, then refined or discarded as needed. This rapid iteration loop, he believes, could dramatically lower the cost of experimentation. The architecture of Immens deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow.
"It’s up to you how much AI you want to use and where you apply it," De Jong emphasized. The team is also committed to open standards, allowing seamless interoperability with popular tools like Blender, Maya, and other generative pipelines. By using text‑based file formats, the engine enables AI models to read and manipulate assets directly, fostering a more connected ecosystem.
"When everything speaks the same language, integration becomes trivial," Brussee added. Despite the enthusiasm, the broader community remains skeptical about AI’s role in game creation. Some commentators on LinkedIn hype the notion of "click‑to‑game" engines that could produce Grand Theft Auto‑scale experiences from a single prompt. Immens’ founders caution against such hyperbole, positioning AI as a facilitator rather than a replacement.
"AI will make everyone better, not replace the creative process," Valient said. He likened the current debate to the early days of the internet, where fear of disruption coexisted with inevitable adoption. Economic concerns also linger.
Critics argue that AI‑focused startups may be riding a speculative bubble, with inflated valuations that could burst. Valient counters that while bubbles come and go, the underlying technology persists. "The dot‑com bubble didn’t kill the internet; it simply filtered out weaker players," he noted.
Immens aims to build a genuinely useful engine, letting AI accelerate development without relying on hype. Funding remains modest. The company has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, describing them as "reasonable". Brussee warned that excessive capital can breed complacency, stressing the importance of staying scrappy.
The current team consists of the three founders plus a handful of helpers, a deliberate choice to maintain agility while tackling the complex task of engine development. Immens is 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 initial expectations; what was projected to take until year‑end is now half‑finished. This rapid progress underscores the potential productivity gains the team hopes to deliver to the wider industry. When asked about the eventual business model, Brussee mentioned admiration for Epic Games’ revenue‑share approach—"we succeed when you succeed"—but admitted that concrete plans are still forming. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will enable more daring, artistic games.
"We love games as an expressive medium and want to see more risk‑taking and creativity. If Immens can help push that boundary, it would be amazing," Brussee concluded.
In summary, Immens represents a bold attempt to re‑imagine the game engine paradigm by embedding AI into the very fabric of its architecture. By prioritising extensibility, transparency, and open standards, the trio seeks to empower indie creators and seasoned studios alike to break free from the costly, monolithic pipelines that dominate today’s market. Whether the venture will reshape the industry remains to be seen, but its emphasis on responsible AI usage and lean development offers a compelling alternative to the entrenched Unity‑Unreal duopoly.