The Secret Chronicles of Dr. M. (TSC) is a free, open-source two-dimensional side-scrolling platform game — a classic run-and-jump adventure in the tradition of console-era platformers, with modern extras. It renders its hand-drawn-looking levels with OpenGL for smooth scaling at any resolution, ships with a full campaign of themed worlds, and adds a built-in level editor plus a scripting engine powered by mruby, a lightweight implementation of the Ruby language.

TSC began as a fork of the stalled Secret Maryo Chronicles project, but the team has since taken it in its own direction: new levels, its own scripting and editor tooling, and a steady release cadence — the 2.2.0 series reached 2.2.0-beta2 on 3 August 2026, with 2.1.0 as the latest stable release. It runs on Linux and Windows.

Key Features

• Classic 2D platforming — run, jump, stomp enemies and collect gems and fruit across side-scrolling levels, with the familiar HUD of points, lives and a level timer.
• Full bundled campaign — a rich set of levels spread across themed worlds (snow, jungle, desert, caves and more), playable entirely offline.
• Built-in level editor — an advanced editor lets you build, test and share your own levels without leaving the game.
• mruby scripting engine — levels, enemies and objects can be scripted in mruby, so custom gameplay logic goes well beyond tile placement.
• OpenGL rendering — the game scales cleanly to modern resolutions and widescreen displays instead of being locked to a fixed pixel grid.
• Straightforward installation — Linux users get an AppImage, a Flatpak (x86_64 and aarch64), .deb packages and an apt repository (Ubuntu 26.04 / Debian 14 and newer, which ship the SFML 3 runtime it needs); Windows users get a 64-bit installer.
• Community translations — the interface and levels are localised, with English, Finnish and Spanish among the available languages.
• Truly free — no ads, no in-app purchases, no account required; the whole game is GPL-3.0 licensed.

Why Use The Secret Chronicles of Dr. M.?

Most free platformers are either one-off demos or abandoned projects. TSC is neither: it has a complete campaign you can play end to end, it keeps receiving releases (the 2.0-era codebase has been reworked into the current 2.2 series), and it hands you the same editor and scripting tools the developers use. If you grew up on 16-bit jump’n’run games, it is a genuine throwback that costs nothing; if you want to make your own levels, it is a ready-made engine to do it in.

Use Cases

• Playing a complete, offline platformer campaign with no store, launcher or account.
• Designing your own levels in the built-in editor and sharing them with the community.
• Scripting custom enemies, items and level mechanics in mruby.
• A gentle introduction to game design for teachers, students and coding clubs.
• A GPL-licensed codebase to study if you are interested in C++ game engines and 2D platformer physics.

Platforms

Linux (AppImage · Flatpak for x86_64 and aarch64 · .deb packages · apt repository) · Windows (64-bit installer and portable 7z build) · buildable from source on other Unix-like systems.

Licence

Free and open source — GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). The complete game, editor and scripting engine are available under the GPL, with the full licence text in the project’s COPYING file.

Website

secretchronicles.org — downloads, screenshots and documentation. Source code and release packages: GitHub — Secretchronicles/TSC.

Similar Games

• SuperTux — free and open source platformer starring Tux, also GPL-licensed and cross-platform.