Going off of
this post, they lost their day job, and the plan was to move back with their parents and get a new job. And since then, they were hospitalized with Covid for a long stretch, and lost their parents, and considering I expect their plan was to live cheap with their parents, I reckon that has thrown a spanner in the works.
I agree that's a long stretch without working and I would be going "haha nope this is a scam" if the patreon wasn't paused; But as it stands, I don't think that undoes anything of what I said. I wouldn't be surprised if they have had to get a job, haven't worked much on the game, and also don't want to come back with a "hey yeah I'm still alive but don't have anything to release yet," if only because I've felt similar before.