Valve Shares CAD Files That Let You 3D Print Your Own Steam Deck - TheGamer

Make your own 3D-printed Steam Deck shell with these blueprints.

The Steam Deck^[1] is set to make its grand debut later this month^[2]. Well, sort of. People who reserved their Deck will get the opportunity to actually confirm their purchase by responding to an email, and those that do will see their Deck's sent out shortly thereafter. The earliest Deck arrivals will likely be sometime in March.

Which gives you plenty of time to personalize your Steam Deck by creating a custom 3D-printed shell courtesy of these CAD files^[3]. Valve recently released the Steam Deck blueprints^[4] (including this lovely PDF file of the schematics^[5]) which allows anyone with the technical know-how to use a 3D printer to create their own shell for their Deck.

Related: I Hope We See Portal 2 On Other Current-Gen Platforms^[6]

The idea here is for Deck owners to get creative with their Deck's outer appearance, which in its standard form is mostly just matte black plastic. It still looks great, but maybe you want your Deck to make a personal statement. "We're looking forward to seeing what the community creates," wrote Valve.

Obviously, these CAD files don't allow you to make an entire Deck as you'd need screws, touchpads, buttons, a screen, and the AMD-sourced hardware^[7] that powers the Deck. But it does mean that third-party manufacturers will be able to easily make their own aftermarket parts to sell if you don't happen to own a 3D printer.

While Valve is giving away CAD files to support the Deck's arrival, it's also making sure as many games are verified for the Deck as possible. Just last week, Valve granted 150 more games the coveted green checkmark, bringing the total up to 310 games^[8].

Unfortunately, that doesn't include Fortnite^[9], but you could always just download Windows^[10] on your Deck and play Fortnite that way.

Next: Final Fantasy 14 Community Spotlight: Brian Ricardo PvP Streamer^[11]

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^[12] About The Author

Sean Murray (5414 Articles Published)

Freelance writer and contributor at The Gamer^[13], Sean hails from Toronto, Canada. If you ask Sean what he likes, he'll say, "Robots, Ninjas, donuts - in that order."

More From Sean Murray^[14]

References

1. ^{^} Steam Deck (www.thegamer.com)
2. ^{^} later this month (www.thegamer.com)
3. ^{^} shell courtesy of these CAD files (gitlab.steamos.cloud)
4. ^{^} released the Steam Deck blueprints (steamcommunity.com)
5. ^{^} lovely PDF file of the schematics (gitlab.steamos.cloud)
6. ^{^} I Hope We See Portal 2 On Other Current-Gen Platforms (www.thegamer.com)
7. ^{^} AMD-sourced hardware (www.thegamer.com)
8. ^{^} bringing the total up to 310 games (www.thegamer.com)
9. ^{^} that doesn't include Fortnite (www.thegamer.com)
10. ^{^} just download Windows (www.thegamer.com)
11. ^{^} Final Fantasy 14 Community Spotlight: Brian Ricardo PvP Streamer (www.thegamer.com)
12. ^{^} So, What Games Are Women Supposed To Play, Exactly? No matter what games women play, we get told to play something else Read Next (www.thegamer.com)
13. ^{^} The Gamer (www.thegamer.com)
14. ^{^} More From Sean Murray (www.thegamer.com)