So I thought about answering a comment here but then I saw there were many, so I'm gonna do my best to relay the information we have until now.
No, the game is not dead, it's not abandoned or anything! It updates regularly every 2 weeks and has done so for the longest time. That said, yes we did last see an update a long while ago, much longer than what is usual, and that is because Arc (the dev) is working on a very large update that not only requires a lot of stuff to be put into place, it also sets up a lot of things for the future (such as reopening the Nexus, which should happen, and this is my own speculation, in the next update or the one after this one), and thus the community held a vote and we decided that this next update would be an exception to the rule and would come "when its done", however long that takes.
All these infos come directly from the dev's Discord, which is a very lively and active place, if you'd like to join, usually the most up-to-date information can be found there