I wonder how the dev feels seeing that a project they spent so much time on and then abandoned is not only still actively recommended to people and loved, but that people are trying to make their own versions of his game.
that's gotta give both a lot of pride and frustration all in one.

As said above very good start to a project. Despite some of my thoughts, I do want to see where you go since there was a clear effort taken to make this. I have faith in you, and I do hope if I look back on this in say a year or two then I think of this as the start of something beautiful and not another abandoned project. Admittedly however with how the world is going, it might not be your fault but hopefully the world realizes it's being fucking stupid and hits undo a few times to go back. 