For years, Unity and Unreal have been the go‑to tools for game creators, accounting for roughly 70 % of all titles launched on Steam in 2025. While Godot has made notable strides recently and some studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example—the market has largely been dominated by the two giants.
Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have launched Immens, a startup that believes there is still room for a fresh engine and, more importantly, a better way to build games. The founders’ 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.
Their combined expertise fuels confidence that they can challenge the status quo. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that “the opportunity now is to build an engine that simply didn’t exist a few years ago.” He sees artificial intelligence as the catalyst that can revive the practice of constructing tools from the ground up, rather than merely patching existing pipelines. Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they are integrating is not the kind that generates content from a single prompt.
Instead, it is an AI‑enhanced architecture designed for extensibility. “AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets,” he explains. “If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can extend it beyond basic scripting. Want a custom particle system?
You can add it directly, without waiting for the core team to implement it.” This approach aims to empower creators to iterate faster, using AI as a collaborative assistant rather than a replacement for human ingenuity. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the current economic pressures of game development. Brussee describes the environment as “rough,” noting that production costs keep climbing, making it increasingly difficult for small studios to survive.
“We need new ways of working that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and shorten timelines,” he says. The goal is to break the cycle where rising budgets threaten the very livelihoods of developers and studios. De Jong, the chief product officer, observes that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. While this has provided a solid foundation, he argues that the industry now needs genuine innovation.
“Continuing to do exactly what we’ve always done isn’t enough,” he asserts. “We need a different paradigm—one that is flexible, modular, and responsive to each developer’s unique workflow.” He criticizes the monolithic nature of current engines, which often force developers to adapt to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
With AI, Immens aims to deliver an engine that molds itself to the user’s needs, allowing developers to swap, append, or modify components at will. Valient acknowledges AI’s power but also its volatility. “If you’re not vigilant, it can go off the rails quickly,” he warns. To mitigate this, Immens is built to keep developers in the driver’s seat: every AI action is transparent, logged, and repeatable.
This visibility ensures that creators can trust the tool and understand exactly how a result was produced. He illustrates the potential with a simple example: generating five characters with a specific trait could previously take weeks of planning and coding; with AI‑assisted tooling, the same task could be sketched out over a coffee break and then refined as needed. Flexibility is a core tenet of Immens’ design philosophy.
De Jong stresses that the engine does not impose a single workflow. “You decide how much AI you want to incorporate and where,” he says. “Our architecture is deliberately open, so you can build bespoke tools that fit your project’s exact requirements.” This openness extends to file formats as well.
By embracing text‑based, open standards, Immens ensures seamless interoperability with popular tools like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline. “When files are readable as plain text, any AI can parse and manipulate them,” Brussee notes, highlighting how this reduces the friction that traditionally isolates engines from the broader software ecosystem. The broader conversation around AI in game development is polarized. Some pundits on LinkedIn hype “click‑to‑game” scenarios where a simple prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale experience.
Immens’ team tempers such hype, positioning AI as a powerful assistant rather than a magic wand. Valient believes AI will elevate the entire industry: “Big games and indie titles alike will benefit because AI makes everyone better.” He also stresses responsibility, acknowledging that any technology can be misused, but it is up to creators to wield it ethically. Economic anxieties also loom.
Critics warn that AI‑focused startups might be part of a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet endured and flourished.
“We’re focused on building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our development and expands our imagination,” he says. Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but Immens is intent on delivering tangible value regardless. Funding details are still under wraps.
The founders have secured “first commitments” but have not disclosed amounts, emphasizing that excessive capital can breed complacency. “Too much money can make a startup lazy,” Brussee jokes, preferring a scrappy, lean approach.
The current team consists of the three founders plus a handful of helpers, a deliberate choice to keep decision‑making agile while tackling the complex task of engine development. Immens is now racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases AI‑driven editing workflows, slated for release this month.
Their timeline has already outpaced initial expectations, with development progressing twice as fast as projected. While the ultimate business model is still being refined, Brussee admires Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” licensing philosophy, though he admits it’s too early to commit to a specific strategy.
Ultimately, the trio hopes Immens will spark a wave of creativity and risk‑taking in the industry. “We love games and want to see more daring, artistic expression,” Brussee says. “If our technology can help developers push boundaries and innovate, that would be amazing.”