Psycle Interactive

BACKGROUND

I am the Studio Marketing & Communication Director of Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include Anno, Assassin's Creed, Driver, Far Cry, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rayman, Tom Clancy's, and Watch Dogs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

• Explore whether machine learning could help translate Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by creating the missing training data, building practical digital tools for Egyptologists, and establishing an open framework that could improve through future research and collaboration.

SOLUTION

Referral

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

6-10 Employees

Psycle conceived and delivered the full digital ecosystem behind The Hieroglyphics Initiative, an open machine learning research programme designed to advance the study of ancient Egyptian inscriptions.

At its core was a collaborative platform combining research tools, machine learning services, and expert workflows, enabling Egyptologists to analyse hieroglyphs, evaluate AI-generated suggestions, and enrich a constantly evolving research dataset.

To support the initiative's reach and engagement, Psycle also created its complete outward-facing presence, including brand identity, website, launch content, academic materials, community infrastructure, and digital communications, helping bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and wider public understanding.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Working with Ubisoft, we crowdsourced 80,000 hieroglyph images overnight from the Assassin’s Creed community, creating the training dataset needed to progress the machine learning work.

Psycle created an outstanding project, optimizing the web design, presentation elements, up to the deck for Goodl Cloud 2018. A very strong proative and 360 project management in whoich Psycle team memebers really acted as partnersto Ubi and Google. I rarely got this level of involvement from an external agency. Great talents, great commitment!

Using Google AutoML, the final classifier achieved at least 77% accuracy across 800+ hieroglyphs and over 98% accuracy when using the top three predictions, making it practical for use within the research workbench.

The open-source Workbench was launched at Google Next 2018, with the project demonstrating that machine learning could meaningfully support hieroglyphic translation while creating a foundation for further academic collaboration and research.

I'm amazed by the level of involvement from the Psycle team. 

They delivered on every standpoints, from the tech backend, to the webdesign, artistic direction, and even created the Google Next deck I had the honor to present. Their commitment to quality simply blew me away.

After 15 years at Ubi, I think I've never left so much wiggle room to an external partner.

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What impressed me the most is how commited to quality Psycle were. 

Tech, video, design... Everything was top quality, without any pressure from client side. Everything was smooth. One of the best relationship i've had with an external partner. 

I do not have anything to report on this. Psycle were oustanding and trully overdelivered. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a Functional Consultant at Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford. OUP further the university’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Psycle Interactive?

We needed a support partner for the ongoing development and maintenance of Bond Online, the 11+ exam revision service.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Psycle Interactive has been responsible for the development, support, and ongoing maintenance of the Bond 11+ Online revision website for more than a decade. The team has been responsible for regular new development releases, new content updates, triaging and fixing bugs, assisting with larger-scale projects that impact Bond Online, as well as incident management assistance for any major issues in order to be resolved quickly and smoothly.
The main software Psycle Interactive has worked with include Joomla (CMS), HikaShop (e-commerce software), and Moodle (testing system). The team has also facilitated the project to replace Moodle.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 2–5 teammates from Psycle Interactive.

How did you come to work with Psycle Interactive?

Psycle Interactive was the existing supplier of Bond Online when it was acquired by OUP during the purchase of Nelson Thornes. We chose them because of their high knowledge of the existing systems, their pricing fit our budget, they were able to transition the service smoothly, and they had a proven track record.

How much have you invested with them?

The investment has been confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2013, and ended in July 2026.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Stakeholders have been impressed with the reliability of the Bond website, good customer feedback, increased functionality, overall turnover of the Bond shop, and also broader internal staff feedback. Overall user enegagement has remained high, and wider business satisfaction is high. Moreover, we’ve increased the number of Bond subscribers/users.

How did Psycle Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

Psycle Interactive’s project management team is very professional. All scoped pieces of work are delivered on time and to specifications. The team is open to adjusting to changing requirements but is also able to keep the project focused on delivery. We communicate via virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Psycle Interactive has very knowledgeable and engaged developers and very good project management. Any issues arising can be relatively easily resolved after a couple of meetings. Moreover, they’re a UK-based team, so we can have face-to-face meetings occasionally as and when needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Usually the only challenge can be around the price, which for a UK team is obviously higher. In terms of actual delivery or consistency of work, there have been no problems.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Digital of Indigo Pearl | PXN

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We host and manage a PR tech platform, designed to help Communications teams effectively manage their digital PR campaigns on a global scale

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Psycle Interactive to accomplish?

• Rebuild our legacy platform in a future-proofed application
• To manage our hosting and application
• A partnership to understand our business goals

SOLUTION

How did you find Psycle Interactive?

Referral

Why did you select Psycle Interactive over others?

• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Psycle Interactive were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Psycle completely rebuilt our platform software, allowing us to part ways with a disruptive and unreliable development company. They effectively managed the new build to scope, on time and within budget. We've been partners with them ever since and they've been integral to our company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They allowed us to make our platform fully scalable to generate new business and company growth

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, Psycle are always efficient, professional, responsive and completely transparent. We have full trust in them which has made our partnership so successful

What was your primary form of communication with Psycle Interactive?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They strike a great balance of being true experts in their field, whilst also being responsive, proffesional, and genuinely great people to work with. It's rare to find a company combines all of those qualities.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Psycle Interactive could have done differently?

N/A