Every kit here started as one sentence. The next one can be yours
Two ways to put a theme on the factory line, both from one box on /steer: pay to steer it to the front, or let people vote, and the most-wanted idea starts every Sunday at noon.
Every kit on Polyfork started as a sentence somebody typed. A suburban street with school buses and pickup trucks. A reef aquarium in an office. Dice and miniatures for a tabletop night. Somebody wrote each of those down, and before long it was 60 models on one palette, one grid and one shape language, sitting in the catalogue for anyone to use.
There are two ways to put your sentence on the line, and both start in the same box on /steer. Steer it, and your kit goes to the front of the queue with a parts list you shaped before anything was built. Or let people vote: it costs nothing, anyone signed in can upvote it, and every Sunday at noon the factory starts the idea with the most votes. This post walks through both.
What you are asking for
A kit is not a pack of loose models that happen to share a theme. Every part of a kit is planned together: one palette, so nothing clashes; one grid, so a wall meets a floor and a fence post meets the next one; one level of detail, so a chair does not look like it came from a different game than the table. Many parts are programs as well as models, with knobs you can turn (a colour, a season, a door open or shut), and a knob that makes sense across the kit is on every part that can use it.
That planning is the expensive part, and it is the part you steer. You are not asking for 60 models. You are asking for one world, delivered as 60 pieces you arrange yourself, or place all at once with one call that builds the whole kit the way it was composed.
Steer it: the paid route
Steering is for Pro and Lifetime accounts. Planning is free on either, so you can see exactly what you would get before paying anything.
1. Type the sentence. One box at the top of /steer, like a chat prompt. Say what the world is, who is in it and what it is for. If you are stuck, the write one for me button drafts a brief from nothing or finishes a half-typed one. You can attach up to three reference pictures for the overall feel. Then press the arrow, and a planner works out the parts list and the look, which takes a few minutes.
2. Pick the look. You get three concept pictures of your brief. Read them as mood boards, not previews: the one you pick fixes the palette, the mood and the level of detail, and every part is built and checked against it. It is not a photograph of what you receive. A kit is a box of separate pieces, and the arrangement in the picture is the illustrator's.
3. Edit the parts. Every row of the parts list becomes one model, and its description is the brief the builder is held to. All 60 rows are yours to rewrite: swap a part you do not need for one you do, make a size explicit, say what a thing is for. The list stays 60 long, because that is what you are buying. If you have designed a part yourself, attach your drawing to its row. That part is then drawn from your picture instead of from the kit look, and a turnaround or a three-view helps most, because it settles the sides we would otherwise guess.
4. Choose what happens to it afterwards. This is the only real choice, and it is about where the kit lives, not what it contains:
| Public, $50 | Private, $100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it goes | Into the catalogue, like every other kit | Nowhere. Never on the site, in the API or in any plan |
| Who can use it | You first, then everyone | Only you |
| Credit | Optional: your name or handle on the kit page, linked to where you choose | Not applicable |
| Licence | Yours forever, commercial, no subscription | Yours forever, commercial, no subscription |
Then pay, and the kit goes to the front of the line. The same step has a third card, Let people vote, which costs nothing and opens the idea for votes instead, described below.
What happens after you pay
Your order page turns into a live progress page. Every part shows where it is: queued, being built, sent back, waiting on a final look, shipped. Each part is judged against its brief and the concept you picked, a lot of parts are sent back before a person sees them, and nothing ships until a person has looked at it.
The first parts usually land within hours: Loot & Lode was paid for at 16:13 on 2 November and had its first part on the shelf an hour later. A whole kit takes days rather than hours, because the judging is the slow part and it is the part we will not hurry. On the five steered kits now on the shelf, half the parts were out somewhere between half a day and five days after payment.
Let people vote: the free route
Not everybody wants to pay to choose what gets built next, and the factory should not only build what somebody paid for. So /steer has a second way in, and it is free.
Anyone signed in can put an idea up for votes: one kit a week on a free account, with no weekly limit on Pro or Lifetime. The week runs Sunday noon to Sunday noon, Berlin time, like the vote. Type it into the same box at the top of /steer. On a Pro or Lifetime plan, Let people vote is the free card next to Public and Private; on a free account, /steer offers it as soon as you press the arrow. Lucas reads every idea before it is opened for votes, and some are declined.
Anyone signed in can upvote, once per idea, in Vote on the next kit at the bottom of /steer. The same list is at the bottom of /kits. It is sorted by votes, and the kit being built is pinned to the top with a blue outline.
Every Sunday at noon, Berlin time, the factory starts the most-voted idea. A tie goes to the idea that was posted first. There is a countdown on both pages. The idea that won is planned exactly like a steered kit, gets its own concept and its own parts list, and joins the catalogue when it is finished, with every low-poly part free.
You hear about it. The person who posted an idea gets an email when it is opened for votes, another when it is picked and the build starts, and a third when the kit is in the catalogue.
Dragons Lair was the first kit picked by vote. Somebody asked for a dark lair on a mountainside with nests for different kinds of dragon, the idea collected the most votes, and on Sunday 1 November the factory started it: four kinds of dragon and their young, eggs and bones, and the dragon slayers who hunt them.
Which route is for you
| Steer it | Let people vote | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $50 public, $100 private, on a Pro or Lifetime plan | Free: one idea a week, no weekly limit on a plan |
| When it starts | As soon as you pay | The Sunday it has the most votes |
| Who shapes the parts | You, row by row | The planner, from your idea |
| Where it ends up | The catalogue, or only with you | The catalogue |
Steer when you need the kit for something with a date on it, when the parts list matters, or when it should stay private. Let people vote when the idea is good and you can wait for other people to agree.
What steering is not
It is not a single model. A kit is 60 parts of one world. For one model, a lamp, a creature, a vehicle, use the requests board instead. It works the same way: post it, people vote, and the most-wanted get built.
It is not a copy of the concept picture. The picture sets the look. The parts are built one by one to their own briefs, and the kit is the set of parts, not the scene.
It is not gameplay. Polyfork makes the world a game happens in: places, props, vehicles, characters and creatures. A kit will not ship a player controller, a health bar or pickups that do something.
Kits that started this way
On the shelf today, 5 kits came from a paid steering order, and one more, picked by vote, is on its way:
- Chrome Arcology Transit: a clean future city's transit system, from hover pods and coupes to the people who ride and run them.
- Office Reefscape: a saltwater reef aquarium, from the tank and sump to corals, fish and the technician who keeps it alive.
- Neighborhood Pathways: a suburban street with its houses, buses and residents. It has since grown an expansion pack, Halloween Night, which dresses the same street for trick-or-treating.
- Clockwork Hand Adornments: steampunk rings, plates and gears for a rigged human hand.
- Emerald Gilded Runes: a tabletop game night, with dice, miniatures, battle maps and the players around the table.
- Dragons Lair, picked by vote, being built now.
Every other kit, and the ones on the line right now, are on /kits.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to get a custom 3D kit made?
Steering a kit costs $50 if it joins the public catalogue and $100 if it stays private, and it needs a Pro or Lifetime plan. Planning is free on either plan, so you see the parts list and the concepts before paying. Letting people vote on an idea is free: a free account can propose one kit a week, and Pro and Lifetime have no weekly limit.
Do I own the kit I steer?
Not a public one. You decide what is built, you get it first with a commercial licence that never expires, and you can be credited on the kit page, but the kit then joins the catalogue for everyone. A private kit is never published: nobody else can get it.
How long does a steered kit take?
The first parts usually land within hours of paying. The whole kit takes days, because every part is judged against its brief and the chosen concept, many are sent back, and nothing ships until a person has looked at it. You can watch each part's progress on your order page, linked from /steer.
Can I suggest a kit without paying?
Yes, one a week. Type it into the box at the top of /steer and choose let people vote. A free account can propose one kit per voting week, which runs Sunday noon to Sunday noon, Berlin time; Pro and Lifetime have no weekly limit. Anyone signed in can upvote. Every Sunday at noon the factory starts the idea with the most votes.
How is the weekly kit chosen?
By votes. Lucas reads every idea before it is opened for votes, and every Sunday at noon Berlin time the factory starts the accepted idea with the most upvotes. A tie goes to the idea posted first. The person who posted it gets an email when the build starts and another when the kit is in the catalogue.
Can I change the parts before the kit is built?
Yes, on a steered kit. Every one of the 60 rows can be rewritten before you pay, and you can attach your own drawing to any row so that part is built from your picture. The number of parts stays the same.
Can I ask for one model instead of a whole kit?
Yes, on the requests board. Post the model you want, other people upvote it, and the most-wanted models get built.
