For years, the game‑development landscape has been dominated by two heavyweight engines—Unity and Unreal—responsible for roughly 70 % of all Steam releases projected for 2025. While open‑source alternatives like Godot have carved out a modest niche and some studios cling to proprietary tools such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely settled into a duopoly. Against this backdrop, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have banded together to launch Immens, an AI‑enhanced engine that they argue can break the cycle of ever‑rising production costs and creative bottlenecks. The trio’s résumés read like a who’s‑who of modern game development.
Brussee spent formative years at Epic Games, the creator of Unreal, before moving on to Guerrilla Games and later founding Boss Key. De Jong’s background includes leadership roles at Apple and several AAA studios, while Valient brings deep technical expertise from his stints at both Epic and independent studios.
Their combined experience gives them a unique perspective on why the status quo feels increasingly restrictive. 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 building a new, competitive engine seemed unrealistic," he said. "Now, with AI‑assisted programming, we can start from scratch and get functional features up much faster than before." Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarified that the AI component is not about generating assets with a single prompt. Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible.
"If we design the engine so that AI can reason about the entire code and data layers, even small teams can plug in custom systems—say, a bespoke particle system—without rewriting large sections of the engine," he explained. This approach aims to give developers the freedom to extend the engine in meaningful ways rather than being confined to a limited scripting layer. The motivation behind Immens is rooted in the harsh economic reality of modern game development. Brussee described the current climate as "rough," noting that budgets are ballooning and the risk of failure is high.
"We need new workflows that cut costs and allow smaller teams to ship high‑quality experiences quickly," he argued. De Jong echoed this sentiment, pointing out that the engine market has become overly standardized and consolidated. "Standardisation gave us a solid foundation, but the industry now needs genuine innovation, not more of the same," he said. One of the core criticisms De Jong has of existing engines is their monolithic nature.
Developers often have to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which can stifle creativity. With AI, Immens aims to become an engine that adapts to the developer rather than forcing developers to adapt to it. "Flexibility is key," De Jong said.
"You should be able to swap modules, add new tools, and shape the interface to match your team’s workflow." Valient cautioned that AI, while powerful, can behave unpredictably if left unchecked. Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can audit the engine’s actions, view its decision history, and ensure repeatable results.
This level of oversight is intended to keep the creative process trustworthy, allowing developers to generate, for example, five uniquely‑behaved characters in minutes rather than weeks, and then discard the temporary tooling once the task is complete. Immens is deliberately built without imposing a single workflow. De Jong stressed that the framework is modular, letting studios decide how much AI to incorporate and where.
The engine also embraces open standards, meaning that text‑based assets can be read and manipulated by any compatible tool. "If you’re using Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI pipeline, you can plug it directly into Immens because we speak the same open‑format language," Brussee explained. This interoperability addresses a long‑standing pain point where proprietary engines act as closed ecosystems, hindering cross‑tool collaboration.
The broader industry conversation about AI in games is polarized. Some commentators hype a future where a single prompt can spawn a Grand‑Theft‑Auto‑scale world, while others warn of ethical and economic pitfalls.
Immens’ founders see AI as a powerful assistant, not a replacement for human creativity. Valient noted, "AI will make every developer better, but it remains a tool. Its current negative perception stems from the disruption it causes at an unprecedented scale." Economic concerns also loom large.
Critics argue that AI‑focused startups are riding a speculative bubble. Valient responded by drawing a parallel to the dot‑com era: the internet didn’t disappear when the bubble burst; instead, the strongest companies survived and thrived. "We’re building a solid engine first; AI simply accelerates our development and expands what’s possible," he said.
Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the team is focused on delivering a functional product rather than chasing hype. Funding for Immens is still in its early stages. The founders have secured initial commitments but have not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as "reasonable." Brussee warned against over‑capitalisation, noting that excessive cash can lead to complacency.
"Startups need to stay scrappy; too much money can make you lazy," he laughed. The company remains a lean operation—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers. This small size is intentional, as De Jong explained: building an engine is a complex, iterative process that benefits from focused decision‑making rather than a massive team.
At the same time, they recognize a narrow window of opportunity as AI becomes mainstream in game development. Balancing sufficient resources with a tight, agile team is a central strategic challenge. Immens is currently developing a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow.
The team aims to release this demo within the month, already having accelerated their timeline from an expected end‑of‑year delivery to roughly half that time. Brussee admitted that predicting exact milestones is difficult given the rapid pace of progress.
Regarding the business model, Immens admires Epic Games’ revenue‑sharing philosophy—"we succeed when you succeed"—but acknowledges that it is too early to formalize a pricing structure. The ultimate goal, according to Brussee, is to empower creators to push the medium forward. "We love games and want to see more risk‑taking, more artistic expression. If our technology can enable that, we’ll consider it a success." In summary, Immens seeks to combine AI’s analytical strengths with an open, modular engine architecture, giving indie developers and smaller studios the tools to compete with larger studios without sacrificing creative control.
By prioritising flexibility, transparency, and interoperability, the founders hope to usher in a new era where game development is less about battling monolithic pipelines and more about realizing imaginative visions efficiently.