hmmm, I think this may have been a case of in it for the money, not in it for the passion. And well... since basically no money, it be dead. (Not saying this is inherently wrong btw, but it isn't exactly a good motivator :S )
Although if I was to theorize I reckon the whole ntr debacle that happened probably did the most damage to this game. cause it would have turned a lot of the target audience off. One scene can kill a game if it goes against the rest of the content. (for example you don't throw a random gangbang scene into a whole romance VN, which results in culling a chunk of your target audience.... especially if it is unavoidable).
would be interesting to see what will happen if the dev returns.