Flappy is a plush toy game controller for playing Flappy Bird

A crowdfunding campaign is underway to fund Flappy, a wireless plush toy game controller that interacts with mobile game Flappy Bird, a project independently developed from the game's creator Dong Nguyen.

"The game that we'll release will be different enough from Dong's game, and we're making our SDK available to other developers who have made clones of Flappy Bird so that their game can work with our toy as well," ZowPow co-founder Jenn Lu told Polygon. "We're reaching out to Dong and would be happy to collaborate with him if he chooses too."

The Flappy toy features a sensor that connects tablet and mobile devices and players move the Flappy peripheral in real-space to control the bird in-game. The accompanying game will be free to download from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. ZowPow are seeking $25,000 to produce the product.

Pulling Flappy Bird from both iTunes App Store and Google Play last month, indie developer Nguyen said that the decision was based on his belief that it was an "addictive product." Flappy Bird was downloaded more than 50 million times during its lifetime and averaged $50,000 in ad revenue per day. Following the game's commercial success, it was suggested that Nguyen employed bots to boost the game's ranking in Apple's App Store.

Smartphones installed with game began appearing on eBay within a day of its removal from the app marketplaces. Pocket Gamer reported last week that on average 60 clones of Nguyen's game are released on the iTunes App Store every day.