For years, Unity and Unreal have been the dominant forces in game creation, accounting for roughly 70% of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While Godot has enjoyed a surge in popularity and some major studios cling to proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a notable example—the market has largely been a duopoly. Yet three industry heavyweights, Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient, have decided that there is still room for a fresh contender. Their new venture, Immens, is set to introduce an AI‑enhanced engine that promises to lower barriers for small teams and spark a wave of innovation.
The trio’s 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. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee argued that the timing is ripe for a new engine, noting that "a couple of years ago this kind of tool simply didn’t exist." He believes AI‑assisted programming can return developers to a state of rapid prototyping, allowing them to build functional systems from the ground up with far less manual overhead. Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarifies that the AI they employ is not the "prompt‑to‑image" variety that dominates headlines.
Instead, the technology is woven into the engine’s architecture to make it highly extensible. "AI can reason over massive codebases and data sets," he explains. "If we design the engine with that capability in mind, even solo creators can add custom particle systems, bespoke physics modules, or any other feature without being limited to a narrow scripting layer.
The AI acts as an accelerator for extension, not a replacement for developer intent." The motivation behind Immersive’s AI‑centric approach stems from a bleak outlook on the current economics of game development. Brussee describes the environment as "rough," emphasizing that production costs continue to climb, making it increasingly difficult for studios to break even. "We need new workflows that shrink budgets, reduce team size, and accelerate timelines," he says.
"Otherwise, developers risk their livelihoods on ever‑larger financial gambles." De Jong, Immens’s chief product officer, points out 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 rather than incremental improvements. He criticizes the "monolithic" nature of existing engines, which force developers to conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines.
With AI, Immens aims to flip that script, delivering a platform that adapts to the user instead of the other way around. "Flexibility is key," De Jong says. "Developers should be able to swap components, append new tools, and tailor the interface to their specific workflow. Imagine a designer who can build a custom UI with shortcuts that match their personal habits, or a programmer who can generate a bespoke asset pipeline in minutes.
That level of personalization has been impossible with the current generation of engines." Valient acknowledges that AI is a double‑edged sword. While it can dramatically speed up iteration, it can also produce erratic results if left unchecked.
To mitigate this, Immens is built with transparency at its core: users can see exactly what the AI is doing, review its decision history, and reproduce outcomes reliably. This auditability ensures that developers retain full creative control while still benefiting from AI‑driven assistance. One practical example Valient gives is the generation of multiple characters with specific traits. In traditional pipelines, this might require weeks of manual work.
With Immens, a developer could describe the desired attributes, let the AI generate the assets, and then reuse the tool as needed—potentially turning a costly process into a quick coffee‑break task. Immens also embraces open standards to guarantee interoperability with the broader ecosystem of game‑development tools.
By relying on text‑based file formats, the engine can seamlessly exchange data with software like Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI suite. "When everything speaks a common language, you can plug in whatever you need without fighting against a closed‑source barrier," Brussee notes. This openness contrasts sharply with many existing engines that act as isolated islands, hindering collaboration across different pipelines.
The conversation around AI in gaming is often polarized. Some commentators on platforms like LinkedIn hype the idea of "click‑to‑game" experiences, suggesting that a single prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world.
Immens’s team tempers those expectations, positioning AI as a powerful tool rather than a magical shortcut. Valient believes AI will elevate the quality of both blockbuster titles and indie projects by making creators more efficient, not by replacing them. Economic anxieties also loom over the AI boom, with critics warning of a speculative bubble. Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying technology— the internet—persisted and flourished.
"AI isn’t disappearing; it’s becoming the infrastructure of the next generation of software," he asserts. Immens’s focus remains on building a solid, useful engine; any hype surrounding AI is secondary to delivering a product that developers actually want to use.
Funding details remain vague. Immens has secured its "first commitments" but has not disclosed amounts, emphasizing that excessive capital can breed complacency.
Brussee jokes that too much money can make a startup lazy, preferring to stay lean and scrappy. The company currently consists of the three founders and a handful of helpers, a deliberate choice to maintain agility while tackling the complex task of engine development. The team is already racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases AI‑driven editing workflows. Originally projected for year‑end, the prototype is slated for release within the month—a timeline that Brussee claims is twice as fast as anticipated.
This rapid progress underscores the potential of AI to accelerate traditionally slow development cycles. Regarding monetisation, Immens admires Epic Games’ philosophy of sharing success with developers but admits it is too early to define a concrete business model. The ultimate goal, according to Brussee, is to empower creators to push the artistic and technical boundaries of games.
"We love games and want to see more risk‑taking, more creativity, and more innovation," he says. "If our engine can help bring that vision to life, that would be amazing."