Odyssey Gaming Festival

The challenge

Odyssey Gaming Festival is an annual celebration of gaming culture held at The Crown Hotel, Harrogate, North Yorkshire. From retro classics spanning the 80s through to the 2000s, to AAA titles, PC gaming, indie showcases, and a dedicated toy marketplace — the event packs an enormous amount of fun into a single venue.

The festival needed a website that could match that energy while solving some very practical problems:

Ticket sales needed a clear path. The primary goal of the site was simple: get visitors to buy tickets. Every design decision needed to funnel people towards that action, whether they were browsing on a phone during a lunch break or researching weekend activities on a laptop.

The event experience was hard to convey. With zones covering retro gaming, AAA titles, PC gaming, indie games, a tech showcase, a toy marketplace, a kids zone, and cosplay — the sheer variety needed to be communicated without overwhelming first-time visitors. Parents needed to know it was family-friendly. Gamers needed to know it was authentic.

Practical information was scattered. Ticket prices starting from just £7.50, free parking, food vendors, venue location — all of this needed to be instantly accessible. Previous communication relied heavily on social media posts across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which meant information was ephemeral and hard to find.

The approach

I built the site with Astro, Svelte UI components, and TailwindCSS, deployed to Vercel. The site shares a multi-tenant Payload CMS instance with Dead Northern, keeping content management centralised while giving each brand its own space. For an event site, speed is critical: people searching for weekend activities on their phones won’t wait for a slow page to load.

The key architectural decisions were:

1. Astro with Svelte components — Pre-rendered pages load instantly, with Svelte components providing interactivity where needed for the ticket booking flow and event showcase
2. Payload CMS — Shared multi-tenant CMS with Dead Northern, giving the team full control over event content, imagery, and scheduling
3. Ticket Tailor integration — Seamless embedding of the ticket purchasing flow, keeping visitors on-site rather than redirecting to a third-party checkout
4. Mobile-first design — The majority of traffic comes from social media links on phones, so every layout was designed for small screens first

The solution

Event showcase design

The design needed to feel fun and energetic without sacrificing clarity. I used bold colours and playful typography that echo the nostalgia of retro gaming, while maintaining clean layouts that guide visitors naturally towards ticket purchase.

Each festival zone gets its own visual treatment, helping visitors understand the breadth of the event at a glance:

• Retro Gaming — Consoles and arcade machines from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, all free to play
• AAA Gaming — The latest titles on current-generation hardware
• PC Gaming — High-spec rigs running competitive and casual titles
• Indie Showcase — A platform for independent developers to demo their games
• Tech Showcase — VR experiences, emerging gaming technology, and hands-on demos
• Toy Marketplace — Stalls selling collectibles, vintage toys, and gaming merchandise
• Kids Zone — Dedicated family-friendly area with age-appropriate games and activities

Ticket Tailor integration

The Ticket Tailor integration was central to the site’s purpose. Rather than linking out to an external ticketing page — which always loses a percentage of buyers — I embedded the booking widget directly into the site. Visitors can browse ticket options starting from £7.50, select their preferred session, and complete their purchase without ever leaving the Odyssey experience.

Social media bridge

With an active presence across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, the website serves as the permanent hub that social content points to. Each social post drives traffic to the site, where visitors find everything they need in one place — no more scrolling through old posts to find ticket links or venue details.

Family-friendly messaging

A deliberate effort went into making the site welcoming to families. Clear messaging about the kids zone, the family-friendly atmosphere, cosplay encouragement, free parking, and on-site food vendors helps parents feel confident that this is a great day out for the whole family — not just hardcore gamers.

Project gallery

The results

The site delivers exactly what an event website should — clear information and frictionless ticket sales:

• Sub-second page loads — Astro’s static generation and Vercel’s edge network ensure instant access from any device
• Streamlined ticket conversion — Embedded Ticket Tailor integration keeps the entire purchase journey on-site, reducing drop-off
• Single source of truth — All event information in one place, replacing the need to hunt through social media posts for details
• Family-friendly positioning — Clear messaging that broadens the event’s appeal beyond the gaming community to families looking for a fun day out
• Social media amplifier — Every Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube post now has a permanent destination to link to

The site works hand-in-hand with the Odyssey team’s social media strategy, turning casual followers into ticket buyers with a fast, attractive, and straightforward web experience.