Former Epic Director Builds European Game Engine to Rival Unreal and Unity with AI Agents

Former Epic Director Launches European Alternative to Unreal and Unity

Arjan Brussee, a veteran game developer with deep roots in the industry, is building The Immense Engine as a European game engine designed to challenge the dominance of American and Chinese platforms 1

1

. The Guerrilla Games co-founder and former Epic director revealed his plans during an interview on the Dutch podcast De Technoloog, positioning the project as a rival to Unreal and Unity that will be "fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European rules and guidelines" 2

2

.

Brussee's credentials span multiple decades and generations of game technology. His career began in the 1990s when he programmed Epic's Jazz Jackrabbit games, followed by co-founding Guerrilla Games in 2003, where he helped develop the Killzone franchise 1

1

. He later co-founded Boss Key Productions with Cliff Bleszinski in 2012 before returning to Epic Games from 2018 to 2023 as global director of product management for Unreal Engine 3

3

.

AI Agents at the Core of Development Strategy

What sets The Immense Engine apart is its approach to AI-centric development. Brussee argues that existing engines like the Unreal Engine and Unity game engine were built around traditional workflows that assume manual interaction through menus and mouse clicks 2

2

. These platforms were "made for and by people who have to click through a menu with a mouse. If you want to change something, it has to be done for the entire engine," he explained 3

3

.

Instead, Brussee is building AI agents into the engine's foundation rather than layering them on afterward. "If you are smart and know how to put a good framework of AI agents to work, you can do the work of ten or fifteen people," he noted in the podcast 1

1

. This vision suggests automated workflows could handle significant portions of the workload typically spread across large teams, fundamentally reshaping how game engines are structured and operated.

Beyond Gaming: 3D Simulation Projects and European Regulations

The European-hosted game engine targets applications beyond entertainment. Brussee sees growing demand in defense and logistics, where data handling and infrastructure face stricter scrutiny 2

2

. "Creating usable 3D worlds is becoming increasingly important, certainly for purposes other than just gaming," he said 3

3

.

A European alternative to Unreal and Unity that adheres to European regulations could prove attractive for government and civil engineering projects. Real-time 3D tools are increasingly used for large-scale infrastructure planning, similar to Japanese local governments using U.S. game engines for civil engineering work 1

1

. Compliance with European guidelines from the ground up could broaden adoption in big government and local government 3D simulation projects.

What This Means for the Industry

Brussee is betting that the next wave of game engine development won't just focus on better graphics or performance, but on rethinking platform architecture and control 2

2

. Breaking into a market dominated by a handful of engines presents significant challenges, but the project aligns with broader shifts toward real-time 3D applications outside gaming and AI's growing role in development workflows. Whether The Immense Engine can carve out meaningful market share remains uncertain, though Brussee's experience gives him insight into where opportunities are emerging. Watch for details on the engine's technical architecture and release timeline as development progresses.