For many years, Unity and Unreal have reigned supreme in the game‑development world, powering roughly 70 % of all titles released on Steam in 2025. While open‑source alternatives such as Godot have made noticeable strides, the market still feels tightly held by a few heavyweight proprietary solutions—Capcom’s RE Engine being a prime example.
In this landscape, three seasoned industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—believe there is still room for a fresh approach. Their startup, Immens, aims to build a next‑generation, AI‑enhanced engine that challenges the status quo. The trio’s résumés read like a roll call of gaming’s elite: experience at Epic Games (the creators of Unreal), Guerrilla Games, Boss Key, and even Apple. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right for a new engine because “the tools that existed a couple of years ago simply aren’t enough anymore.” He argues that AI‑assisted programming now allows developers to start from a clean slate and assemble functional systems much faster than before, provided they retain enough oversight and direction.
Valient, Immens’ chief technology officer, clarifies that the company’s use of AI differs from the hype‑driven “prompt‑to‑content” narrative that dominates many discussions today. Instead of relying on AI to generate assets on demand, Immens leverages AI to make the engine itself more extensible. “AI can reason about large codebases and data sets,” he says. “If we design the architecture with that capability in mind, even a solo developer can plug in a custom particle system or a bespoke animation pipeline without rewriting core modules.” The goal is to let creators extend the engine quickly, turning what used to be months of engineering into a matter of hours.
Brussee paints a bleak picture of the current market dynamics: development costs are soaring, budgets are ballooning, and the risk of failure is higher than ever. “It’s really hard to be successful making games,” he notes. “We need new ways of working that cut expenses, shrink team sizes, and accelerate timelines, otherwise studios jeopardize their very survival.” De Jong, the chief product officer, echoes this sentiment, observing that the engine ecosystem has become overly standardized and consolidated. While that consolidation provides a solid foundation, it also stifles innovation.
“We’re at a point where the industry faces many challenges, and simply repeating old methods won’t solve them,” he asserts. “What we need now is genuine innovation, not more standardisation.” One of De Jong’s primary criticisms of existing engines is their monolithic nature. Developers must conform to rigid workflows, proprietary file formats, and fixed toolchains. With AI, Immens intends to flip that model on its head, offering an engine that adapts to the developer rather than forcing the developer to adapt to it.
“Flexibility is key,” he explains. “You should be able to swap components, append new modules, or even rewrite interfaces to match exactly what your project demands. I can build tools that reflect my own habits, shortcuts, and UI preferences, and my team can do the same for their specific pipelines.” Valient also warns that AI, while powerful, can quickly veer off course if left unchecked.
Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and control: users can see what the engine is doing, review its decision history, and reproduce results reliably. This level of oversight is crucial for creative workflows that often involve iterative problem‑solving—such as generating five characters with a unique trait. In the past, such a task might have taken weeks; with AI‑assisted tooling, the same outcome could be prototyped over a coffee break, used a handful of times, and then discarded. The cost savings and speed gains are, according to the founders, “really powerful.” The architecture of Immens is deliberately agnostic.
It does not impose a single workflow or dictate how much AI you must employ. Instead, the framework is built to let developers decide where AI fits into their pipeline. De Jong stresses that the engine will support open standards, meaning that text‑based files can be read and manipulated by any compatible tool.
This openness enables seamless integration with industry staples such as Blender, Maya, or any generative‑AI suite. “When everything speaks the same language, you can plug in whatever you need without wrestling with proprietary barriers,” Brussee says.
The broader conversation about AI in game development is polarized. Some commentators on platforms like LinkedIn predict a future where entire AAA‑level experiences can be conjured with a single prompt—a “click‑to‑game” vision that many find unsettling.
Immens’ team acknowledges that such extremes are possible but insists that AI should be viewed as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. Valient believes AI will make developers better, not obsolete, and that the current negative perception stems from the disruptive scale of the technology. De Jong adds that responsible use is a collective duty: “Any tool can be misused; it’s up to us to guide it toward positive outcomes.” Economic anxieties also swirl around the AI boom, with critics labeling the sector a bubble of inflated valuations.
Valient draws a parallel to the dot‑com era, noting that while many companies vanished, the underlying internet persisted and flourished. He argues that Immens is focused on building a genuinely useful engine; AI simply accelerates their development and expands their creative horizon. Whether the market is in a bubble remains uncertain, but the founders are more concerned with delivering a solid product than with speculative hype. Funding for Immens is still in its early stages.
The company has secured “first commitments” but has not disclosed exact figures, describing the amount as “reasonable.” Brussee cautions against excessive capital, noting that too much money can breed complacency. The startup remains intentionally lean—just the three founders and a handful of helpers—because building a sophisticated engine requires focused decision‑making rather than a massive headcount.
De Jong explains the delicate balance: a small, agile team can iterate quickly, but the window of opportunity created by AI’s rise is limited. They must secure enough resources to hit that window without over‑staffing. Immens is currently racing toward a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow. The team aimed to have a working prototype by the end of the year, but they are already moving twice as fast as anticipated.
Brussee admits that timeline predictions are challenging in such pioneering work, yet the early progress is encouraging. The business model remains under discussion. While Immens admires Epic Games’ philosophy of “we succeed when you succeed,” they admit it is too early to commit to a specific revenue structure. Ultimately, the founders hope their engine will empower creators to push the medium forward, fostering more artistic risk‑taking and innovation.
As Brussee puts it, “We love games, we love complex expressions of the art form, and we want to see more creativity. If our technology can help make that happen, that would be amazing.”