Toby Moores

I'm a Visiting Prof. at the IOCT and I make PS2 Games for Sony

My name is Toby Moores and I was born in born 1965.

I am a Visiting Professor of the Institute of Creative Technology (IOCT) at De Montfort University (DMU).
I am a consultant in Commercial Creativity (using creative thinking tools in business) through my company SleepyDog Ltd.
We also make video games for a living.

I am a Wakeboard Instructor, a Trainee Snowboard Instructor (BASI) and a qualified Commercial Pilot (CPL/IR and PPLH)

IOCT
My interest at the IOCT, other than as a commercial advisor, is to help develop a commercial and creative thinking skills module. I am also interested in Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 solutions within a University setting.

Commercial Creativity.
I predominantly use De Bono techniques to help businesses think more creatively. My focus is on commercial results:

Reducing Costs
Improving Profitability
Improving the Brand
Providing a Thinking Toolkit for future use.

I will address these ideas elsewhere in this blog

SleepyDog
SleepyDog is an ideas business that uses creative thinking tools to develop commercial products and IP:

BUZZ
Our most recent product is the Buzz franchise for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) for the PS2. Buzz was our original concept, coming directly from our creative process. We had a great concept but no relevant video game skills. In true De Bono style, this was our provocation. We secured a world first blanket music licence for games, built the database and wrote the questions.

The first game Buzz: The Music Quiz was their number 1 selling title of 2006. It was still in the PS2 charts after 29 weeks and is expected to sell through until the first quarter 2007. As of 19-07-2006, the music quiz is the number 4 all time Top 100 PS2 game on Play.com. Buzz also won Best New Console IP at the 2006 Develop Industry Excellence Awards, as well as Best Innovation for the Buzz Controllers.

The second title Buzz: The Big Quiz is SCEE’s biggest title of 2006 to date (as of 19-07-2006 it is still number 6 in the PS2 charts).

We are currently working on the Christmas 2006 and the Easter 2007 titles. We are in planning for Christmas 2007.

FLOOFS
Prior to Buzz we spent 8 years licensing IP to the mobile telecoms sector most notably mobile security and top-up cards. We also produced a range of mobile content for O2, Vodafone, Mob.tv etc. These were in the form of animated messages called Floofs.

AMAZE.COM
I worked with Amaze, consultants to Littlewoods in TV shopping, most notably in the area of limited interface devices (how do you find 30,000 products with a TV remote?). Work on the Creative Thinking tools started at this time.

LITTLEWOODS PLC
I was at The Littlewoods Organisation for 7 years including:

1 year as a Director of Credit and Data Marketing Services

2 years as a Director of Home Shopping involved in the early move into TV and Internet Shopping.