We have said that this year will be mostly about the engine work; we had to build the toolset and the infrastructure in the engine to be able to code the actual game effectively. So we've been working on the model import, scripting and lots of small stuff needed for the game. There's also skeletal animation in the works so that we will be able to put animated characters into the world. With all that the fun starts, but a good game needs more than that.
We feel too that we need to add actual gameplay into it but we don't want to rush it or else people will complain again about it being half-baked. I know it takes a long time, but that's the time it takes. It's not dead at all, I'm sorry that you feel it so.