I really hope this isn't a dead project... It's been almost a year at this point.
Sam doesn’t really touch Itch as much as they used to unless it’s to upload updated versions of the game. I really don’t even know the last time they actually made an appearance in the comments here. And people like me that have been around for a few years have learned that Sam tends to get lost in adding features and goes a bit insane doing it, adding more than originally intended quite often. They update their progress all the time on Patreon.