Takatak Boyz

About Takatak Boyz

Takatak Boyz is a hand-painted arcade runner by Hawo, marked on its official itch.io page as
the winner of the UPLB 2026 Annual Game Jam. “Barya lang po sa umaga!” — the game puts you in
the slippers of a street-smart Takatak Boy on the streets of Manila, where your weapon of
choice is a takatak box. The streets are a battlefield: you dodge traffic, sell snacks to
people in their vehicles, make bank, and hit your quota before the day gets away from you.

The presentation is deliberate and local. The art is hand-painted in a comic style, and the
opening scene plays out as a short comic strip in Tagalog — two boys talking about playing
Mobile Legends and running out to buy a cheap phone. That framing immediately sets the tone:
this is a game about street kids hustling, with humor and energy rather than grit.

The developer describes the core fantasy as “flexing your ultimate street grinding skills” —
dodge, sell, repeat, and chase the daily target.

How to Play

The controls are simple and split between movement and selling:

1. Move. WASD steers your Takatak Boy through the tight lanes of traffic. The streets are
   busy, so the movement layer is a dodge game by itself.
2. Sell. Left click (drag and drop) grabs snacks or cigarettes from your box and drags
   them directly to waiting customers in their vehicles.
3. Attract customers. Tap your left and right mouse buttons like a takatak slider — the
   iconic sound pulls nearby customers in and boosts your sales.

The loop is: stay alive through the traffic, find customers who are waiting, serve them fast,
and build toward the quota. Each run is short and arcade-paced; the challenge comes from
doing all three things at once when the lanes get crowded.

The Street-Selling Loop

Takatak Boyz is a selling game disguised as a runner. The dodge mechanic keeps you moving,
but the actual objective is the sale: spot a customer, drag the right item, collect the
payment, and let the takatak sound draw in the next one. The quota adds a clear win condition
per run, and the hand-painted Manila setting gives the loop a personality that a generic
endless runner would not have.

The official page emphasizes that the game was uploaded as a bug-free mobile version, and the
browser build runs on PC or mobile with a longer load time on phones. That makes it a good
candidate for quick sessions — a run fits the “a few minutes” arcade mold.

Tips for New Players

• Learn the traffic first. The selling is easy once you are not being run over; spend the
  first run just steering through the lanes to learn the spacing.
• Drag, do not click. Selling uses drag-and-drop from the box to the customer, so a plain
  click will not do the job — aim the drag at the waiting customer.
• Use the takatak sound deliberately. Tapping both mouse buttons attracts customers, but
  it can also slow you down mid-traffic; use it when you have clear space.
• Watch the quota. The daily target is the win condition; if you are just dodging without
  selling, the run does not progress.
• Be patient on mobile. The mobile version loads slower (around 15+ seconds), so do not
  mistake the loading screen for a crash.

The Setting

Manila’s streets, drawn by hand in a loose comic style: jeepneys and cars in tight lanes,
vendors working the gaps between them. The game leans into the everyday sound of the takatak
box — the wooden clapper street vendors use to announce themselves — as both a mechanic and a
joke. It is a love letter to street vending as a hustle: chaotic, loud, and full of small wins.