1. A method comprising: receiving, at a computing-based device, a virtual 3D shape generated by a user; generating a derived 3D shape for a custom modular object from the received virtual 3D shape, wherein the custom modular object can be connected to other modular objects to form a coherent physical whole object, the coherent physical whole object acting as a user input device for an interactive software experience, triggering the sending of the derived 3D shape to the user in virtual or physical form; and providing a virtual representation of the custom modular object to the interactive software experience.