For Americans, following the news in Europe can feel like watching two gunfights happen in your living room at the same time, a nu-metal concert, or a soccer game on your neighbor’s TV where you see someone revving up a pickup truck for no reason. But right now it’s worth focusing on Europe. Because in areas like technology and defense, there is an emerging trend of Europeans going beyond our BS. Either way, that’s the vibe. Last month, for example, the French government began migrating from Windows to Linux.
And now, the Dutch co-creator of the legendary 90s game Jazz Jackrabbit has a vision of Europe being unshackled by Unreal Engine, the gaming world’s gravitational pillar used in other media, and he just might have the talent and experience to pull it off. You should probably be careful though, as it sounds like he’s really using AI.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Arjan Brussee, co-founder of Horizon: Zero Dawn studio Guerrilla Games, appeared on Dutch technology podcast De Technoloog earlier this week to talk about his project “the Immense Engine,” a general-purpose software replacement that could theoretically be a true replacement for Unreal Engine.
Unreal Engine is the most famous software foundation for Fortnite, but it’s also the software foundation for classics like Gears of War, Bioshock Infinite, Mass Effect, and Batman Arkham City. It has also been used in Hollywood productions such as The Mandalorian, and is used to create popular YouTube content for children. European game engines exist, most notably the German-based CryEngine associated with the Far Cry games, but this is primarily a first-person shooter engine that has long struggled to gain adoption.
If there’s anyone who can be trusted to build an Unreal-Engine for muesli eaters, it’s probably Brussee. He is a successful games entrepreneur himself, having worked for decades at Epic Games, the parent company of Unreal Engine.
Some of the translated statements about his plans for the Immense Engine come from Video Games Chronicle (a UK-based blog, so it’s unclear who actually translated it). “Right now, no one is making engines that are completely European-led, built by Europeans, and comply with European rules and guidelines,” Brussy said. He also alluded to the goal of Unreal-like versatility, saying, “Creating usable 3D worlds is becoming increasingly important for purposes other than gaming.”
But he also seemed to argue that “the rise of AI means we need to approach developing this kind of critical software differently” and that “if you’re smart and know how to make a good framework of AI agents work, you can do the work of 10 or 15 people.” So it looks like the codebase for this project will be heavily AI-assisted. Maybe Brussels will use the Mistral model to keep the European feel.
