Roguelike Dungeons : analysis of the classics

DapperDodo goes retro.

I am considering making an old school Roguelike, inspired by the old 1980's classics such as 'Rogue' and 'Sword of Fargoal'.

In this post i analyze how dungeons were done in those classic games and define my own rule set for this.

Classic Dungeons

A Dungeon generally consists of a balanced combination of Rooms, Corridors and Rock. 

The ratio's between those may vary between dungeons. For example, Sword of Fargoal featured the Sword Level, which consisted of only corridors, with only a single central Room (a classic Maze). The player could immediately recognize that they entered this sword level.

Players could move between Dungeons by means of Stairs, either up or down. In the classic games, every time you moved to another Dungeon, a brand new random dungeon was created. In my opinion it would be better to make Dungeons persistent within a Game.

The player could end up in an isolated part of a Dungeon (Compartment), with no corridors to the rest of the Dungeon. This required the player to return to the previous level and find another entrance.

Our Rule Set

When creating a new Dungeon, the following parameters must be provided:
- number, and location of 'returning' stairs from the previous Dungeon
- number of 'downward' stairs to the next Dungeon
- Room, Corridor and Rock (0..100)
- Rooms (0..n)
- Compartments (0..n)

Dungeons are persistent within a game. 

The return trip : on completion of the deepest level, the return stairs are to be destroyed, and a single new staircase becomes available. Dungeons on the return trip have less stairs (one or two).