How do you know? Saw nothing on the Patreon
The dev leaves for like 4 months at a time if not longer. It could be as long as 6 months before you see an update and right now the last update was """only""" 3 months ago. It's so fucking funny. The same damn map, barely a few new models, some reworked scenes. It's very slowly drip-fed content. I wish I could forget that I played it back in 2017/2018 so I could experience it for the first time and go "WOW!". Because back then, despite how bare bones it was it was amazing. It still feels good when I play it but I am so impatient for new updates and there's nothing I could do to change this.
In the past, before he hid the exact amount of patreon money he got, he was getting at least 12,650$ per month. It's not a money issue. He does not have to work another job. Right now he has 20,162 MEMBERS, not dollars, MEMBERS. And even if every member was only paying the minimum 2$ a month to get access to the testing builds which are SUPPOSED TO BE UPDATED EVERY 3 WEEKS, he'd be getting over 40,000$ a month. He could hire other people to work on the project. Of course he could. Money is not the issue. Maybe it's burn out. But DAMN!!! I understand a several month burn out. But I don't get them repeatedly every year!
Anyways, tl;dr he's not dead. He'll come back in a few more days, weeks, or months (but not years). Snails pace development. Maybe in 10 years we'll finally get version 0.9 or something.