Diablo 4 was finally officially announced at last year's BlizzCon, and in the first of a series of quarterly updates, Blizzard revealed a behind-the-scenes look at the game's development. The update begins with an introduction to the game's interface and controller support options, and continues with a look at "darker, grittier" monster designs, including a new monster family called the "cannibals."

The inventory design of Diablo 4 has changed since BlizzCon from a "painterly style" to a more visually realistic one. The brightness and saturation of the icon backgrounds have also been toned down, and border decorations have been added to provide "secondary visual cues to rarity." The inventory layout was also changed to provide better visual balance.

Of course, Diablo 4 is still a long way off and is still a work in progress at this point. Lead UI designer Angela Del Priore said, "We hope to get closer to our goal of a rigid and realistic UI while balancing ease of use." The inventory screen is probably the one that players will interact with the most, so we really appreciate the feedback in this area."

Some changes have also been made to the action bar; Blizzard moved the action bar to the lower left corner of the screen to make it more visible in the center, but based on testing and feedback, it has been moved back to the center on PC. However, PC players still have the option to move it to the left corner.

"When playing away from the screen, the preferred position changes to the left corner. This is not surprising given the change in viewing angle (the figure below is not to scale), but support for controller input means that the center placement is not the majority on the PC," explains Del Priore. So we will stick to corner placement only on consoles, but will offer both left and center as options on PCs."

Blizzard is also working on optimizing two-player couch co-op: In Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, the action was interrupted when one player had the UI screen open, but in Diablo 4, independent access Diablo 4" will allow independent access to the UI.

The "things to kill" portion of the update is a bit more abstract, delving into the change in approach to enemy design from "Diablo 3" to "Diablo 4."

"All monsters have been reimagined, but with a darker, grittier art style. Every creature you encounter has been lovingly handcrafted from the ground up, from demons, NPCs, act bosses, and even small animals that seem to crumble underfoot. While we pay homage to some signature gameplay, such as the Fallen Shaman resurrecting other Fallens, we have completely reimagined them in other places," says Senior Encounter Designer Candace Thomas.

"To make these creatures feel more refined and robust, we designed them with what we call 'monster families' or archetypes. Each family has a different fighting style and feel. For example, the Drowned Tribe has five members of various archetypes: the blow-holder, the ranged fighter, the melee fighter, the swarmer, and the dungeon boss.

The update also unveiled a new monster family, the "Cannibals." The "Cannibals" are a group dedicated to melee combat and move with incredible speed. "Some jump over obstacles and rivals to close the gap, while others quickly and skillfully maneuver around other monsters to strike first. This makes for a very different experience, giving players no time for thoughtful positioning and making predator combat feel frenetic."

Not surprisingly, the update contains no hint of a release date. Nevertheless, it is still a long way off: when it was announced at BlizzCon 2019, just a few months ago, director Luis Barriga said, "It won't be released right away, not even Blizzard soon."