I think this is goinna be another casualty of the Artist Syndrome, where they get excited about "designs" but once they've got the characters appearances and background figured out all that icky writing and coding stuff becomes the bulk of their time and they lose interest.
I think it's dead, Jim. A "reboot" is a bad sign ("my code is terrible, I can't remember how this works, let me start over, and oh yeah while I'm in there I get to UPDATE THE DESIGNS WOOO"), and ghosting your paying fans is the worst sign.