For many years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to platforms for game developers, accounting for roughly seventy percent of the titles launched on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have enjoyed a surge in popularity, most large studios still lean on proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a notable example—leaving Unity and Unreal with a near‑monopoly on the market. Enter Immersive Technologies, better known as Immens, founded by three seasoned veterans: Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient.
Their résumés read like a who’s‑who of the industry, featuring stints at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. The trio believes there is still room for a fresh engine, and more importantly, room for a fundamentally better one. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new platform.
“A few years ago the idea of an AI‑enhanced engine didn’t really exist,” he said. “Now, with AI‑assisted programming, we can start building from the ground up again while keeping tight control over the process. That lets us deliver full‑featured tools much faster.” Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they are integrating isn’t the kind that simply generates assets from a prompt. “Our AI is baked into the architecture of the engine itself,” he noted.
“It can analyse massive codebases and data sets, making the engine highly extensible. Smaller teams or even solo developers can plug in custom systems—like a bespoke particle system—without being confined to a limited scripting layer.
The AI helps them extend the engine quickly and safely.” The motivation behind this ambitious project stems from the current state of the games market, which Brussee describes as “rough.” Development costs keep climbing, making it increasingly difficult for studios to break even. “We need new ways of working that lower budgets, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines,” he argued. “If we can make the process more efficient, creators won’t have to gamble their livelihoods on a single hit.” De Jong, Immens’ chief product officer, pointed out that the engine landscape has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has given developers a stable foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“The industry faces a host of challenges, and simply repeating the old playbook won’t solve them,” he said. “We need a shift from standardisation to genuine innovation.” One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the monolithic nature of existing engines.
Developers often have to bend their workflows to fit proprietary file formats and rigid toolchains. With AI, Immens aims to flip that dynamic, allowing the engine to adapt to the developer’s needs instead of the other way around. “Flexibility is key,” he explained. “You should be able to swap components, append new features, and build tools that match your personal workflow—down to the exact shortcuts, UI layout, and feature set you require for a particular project.” Valient also warned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked.
“We are designing Immens so that the user always remains in control,” he said. “You can see exactly what the engine is doing, review its history, and reproduce results reliably. This transparency lets you create throw‑away tools for specific tasks—like generating five characters with a unique trait in minutes—without incurring the massive cost that used to be unavoidable.” Immens’ philosophy is to avoid imposing a single workflow on its users.
De Jong emphasized that the framework is deliberately agnostic: “You decide how much AI you want to employ and where you want it to intervene. The architecture is built to support any approach, provided the AI understands the context correctly.” Open standards play a central role in Immens’ design.
By relying on text‑based file formats, the engine can interoperate seamlessly with other software such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI tool. “When files are human‑readable, any program can parse them,” Brussee said.
“That means the AI can read, modify, and exchange data across the entire pipeline. It’s a huge step toward a more connected ecosystem, something that proprietary engines have traditionally resisted.” The broader industry is divided on AI’s role in game creation. Some commentators on LinkedIn predict a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience, fueling a backlash that paints AI as a threat to craftsmanship. Immens’ founders acknowledge the hype but view AI as a catalyst rather than a replacement.
“One day we might see ‘click‑to‑game’ engines, but for now we see AI as a powerful tool that amplifies human talent,” Valient remarked. “It’s disrupting at an unprecedented scale, which is why it feels uncomfortable, but that disruption is exactly what can push the medium forward.” Economic concerns also surface, with skeptics labeling the AI boom a bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst; many companies fell, but the technology endured and grew stronger. AI is similar—some ventures will fail, but the ones that deliver real value will survive.
Whether we’re in a bubble is uncertain, but history shows that useful tech persists.” Funding for Immens remains modest. The company has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed the exact amount, describing it as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against over‑funding: “Too much money can make a startup complacent.
Being scrappy forces you to focus on what truly matters.” The team itself is lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers. They believe a small, focused group is essential for making nuanced architectural decisions without the inertia of a massive staff. De Jong explained the balance: “Building an engine is complex; you can’t throw a million engineers at it and expect miracles.
You need a tight core that iterates, learns, and pivots. At the same time, you must seize the narrow window of opportunity that AI presents.
That’s the trade‑off we’re navigating.” Immens is currently targeting a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a full editing workflow powered by generative AI, slated for release later this month. Brussee noted that the timeline has already outpaced their original expectations: “We launched in April and thought we’d be demo‑ready by year‑end. We’re now delivering it in half that time, which makes it hard to predict future milestones.” Regarding the business model, Brussee says Immens admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy but admits it’s too early to commit to a specific revenue structure.
The ultimate goal, he says, is to empower creators to push the boundaries of what games can be. “We love games as an art form.
We want to see more risk‑taking, more creativity, and more innovation built on technology like ours. If we can help make that happen, it would be amazing.”