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

Former Epic director is building a European rival to the Unreal and Unity game engines -- 'The Immense Engine' dev sees opportunity for AI agents to 'do the work of ten or fifteen people'

Dev team are aiming for an engine that is 'fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European rules and guidelines.' A heavyweight games industry veteran says he is building a fully European alternative to popular games engines from American and Chinese companies. Arjan Brussee shared the plans in an interview hosted by the De Technoloog podcast (Dutch), reports the Video Games Chronicle. Dutchman Brussee has some serious games industry credentials. His stint at Epic Games was split over two eras, the first one which saw him programming the Jazz Jackrabbit games in the 90s. Then, from 2018 to 2023, Brussee returned to Epic as the global director of product management for Unreal Engine. Between those eras Brussee became the co-founder of Guerrilla Games from 2003 (Killzone franchise), and Boss Key Productions from 2012. The Immense Engine, a European alternative Most readers will be familiar with game engines like Unreal and Unity (the latter was founded in Denmark but relocated to San Francisco in 2009). Brussee reckons that a European game engine will rival these offerings and alternatives from the Chinese, but The Immense Engine will be "fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European rules and guidelines." Having a Europe-first game engine could be a boon for 3D simulations in defense or logistics on the continent. If it is built to adhere to the aforementioned European rules and guidelines, this could broaden its adoption in big government and local government projects, too. Work already is underway with The Immense Engine, and other than gaming it is clearly being developed with practical representations of 3D worlds in mind. We recently reported on Japanese local government using U.S. game engines for large civil engineering projects, so Brussee is thinking along similar lines. There has to be an AI angle Software coding and AI are inevitably going to be further intertwined going forward, and Brussee embraces rather than shuns this trend. In the podcast interview he said the he sees opportunities with the rise of AI, especially by making the most of fewer human resources. "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," noted the game industry veteran. Brussee strongly suggests the use of AI agents in developing the engine, but whether that means there will be AI tools built in to The Immense Engine from the start remains to be seen. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Former Epic director and Guerrilla Games co-founder is building a European game engine to rival Unreal and Unity

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. First look: A longtime game developer who has worked across multiple generations of game technology is now trying to build something that doesn't quite exist in today's market: a game engine developed and operated entirely within Europe. Arjan Brussee, best known as a co-founder of Guerrilla Games and a former global director of product management for Unreal Engine at Epic Games, says he's developing a new platform called The Immense Engine. The idea, as he describes it, is to create an alternative to the dominant engines that currently come out of the US and China. Brussee's background stretches back to the 1990s, when he programmed Epic's Jazz Jackrabbit games. He later co-founded Guerrilla Games in 2003, helping steer production during the studio's early years. After a period co-founding Boss Key Productions with Cliff Bleszinski, he returned to Epic, where he spent eight years working on Unreal Engine in senior roles. Now based again in the Netherlands and working independently, Brussee is positioning his latest project partly around geography and regulation. "No one is currently making an engine that is fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European rules and guidelines," he said on the Dutch podcast De Technoloog. That reflects a broader change in how game engines are being used. Real-time 3D tools are no longer limited to entertainment. Brussee pointed to growing demand in areas like defense and logistics, where data handling and infrastructure are more tightly scrutinized. "Creating usable 3D worlds is becoming increasingly important, certainly for purposes other than just gaming," he said. At the same time, his critique of existing engines is more technical. He argues tools like Unreal and Unity were built around workflows that assume a user clicking through menus and making changes step by step. That approach doesn't translate cleanly to a development environment where AI plays a larger role. He described current engines as systems that 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." What he's proposing instead is an engine built with AI at its core, not layered on afterward. Brussee said the growth of AI requires a different approach to building this type of core software, adding that his experience gives him a clear view of where new opportunities are emerging. The implication is a shift toward more automated and distributed ways of building content and systems. Brussee suggests that, with the right structure in place, AI could handle a significant share of the workload typically spread across teams. He said that with the right AI framework, a small team could handle work that would normally require ten to fifteen people. There's still little detail on how The Immense Engine will be built or when it might be released. But the direction is clear enough. Brussee is betting that the next wave of game engine development won't just be about better graphics or performance, but about rethinking how these platforms are structured - and who controls them. In a space where a handful of engines dominate, that's a difficult position to break into. But the project lines up with broader shifts, including the use of real-time 3D outside gaming and the growing role of AI in development workflows. Whether that's enough to carve out space for a new engine remains to be seen, but the argument behind it is starting to take shape.

Guerrilla Games co-founder developing European game engine to rival Unreal and Unity

"No one is currently making an engine that is fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European guidelines." Guerrilla Games co-founder and former Epic tech director Arjan Brussee is working to build a new game engine as an "European alternative" to US-centric engines like Unreal and Unity. Speaking to De Technoloog, Brussee - who also co-founded Boss Key with Cliff Bleszinski - said "The Immensive Engine" will provide more choice to studios looking for development engine options outside the US. "No one is currently making an engine that is fully European-hosted, built by Europeans, and complies with European rules and guidelines," he said, as transcribed by VGC. "Creating usable 3D worlds is becoming increasingly important, certainly for purposes other than just gaming." Brussee is also integrating AI from the ground up, pointing out that engines like Epic's Unreal 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". "The rise of AI means that we need to approach the development of this kind of crucial software differently. As an old hand with a vision of how things should work, I see opportunities there. "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."