Jaiffa tries to be the simplest interactive fiction system that can possibly fly, while not suffering from artificial limitations. As such, it sticks to the basics:
The world model is only made up of:
It also provides the game author with a fluent interface, making development as easy as it can be in a language like Javascript.
While the parser is a simple two-word affair, I didn't want it to be frustrating. I wanted sane error messages, and to allow commands such as "pick up remote" or "talk to man". I also made it easy to create synonyms for both verbs and objects, and it's possible to have local commands (of arbitrary length) that override anything else -- with the downside that the player must know the exact spelling.
Jaiffa notably lacks support for undo and save/restore. Because daemons and verb handlers are ordinary Javascript functions which can be replaced on the fly, serializing the game state -- and most importantly putting it back the way it was -- can range from difficult to impossible depending on the browser.
Jaiffa should learn which words represent exit names, so it can answer "you can't go that way", the way Alan 3 does. For that matter, a predefined compass wouldn't hurt either.
Embedding a game needs to be easier. Much easier.
To the game