Game development and parenting are actually not all that different, according to Infamous studio Sucker Punch Productions cofounder Chris Zimmerman. In an interview with GameSpot, the industry veteran–who has children of his own–said game developers must let their games develop organically. Just as a parent who tries to control their child’s life is bound to fail, the same is true for game developers, he argued.

“You kind of have an idea about who your kids are going to be, or who you want them to be. And they often end up being something a little bit different than that,” Zimmerman said. “And if you’re gonna be a good parent, you have to let them become who they are going to be. If you try to force them into being who you want them to be, you’re going to fail. You have to help them understand who their best self is as a parent.”

“And that’s the same thing as a game developer. The game is kind of that way, where you just can’t force it to be what you want it to be,” he added. “You have to let it become what it wants to become, what it needs to become. What’s the best execution of that core idea? A lot of that is going to come from the team, and some of that has to come from outside the team. It has to come from the customers, it has to come from the people that have a consumer view of it not just a producer view of it.”

The next entry in the series, Infamous: Second Son, launches March 21 exclusively for the PlayStation 4. For more, check out GameSpot’s just-published coverage of the game.