I'm still around - had a great run last semester after the Christmas break, made straight A's.
About to start my second year of grad school, and may get into the fun stuff that's not coursework soon - research, internships, etc.
As for my project, I am making steady progress - story is planned out, just have to extrapolate stage directions from it now for all the game's cinematics, and I've began coding and generating the first artwork - floor tiles, dungeon diagrams, and my first walk cycle came together a few minutes ago.
Building my own game engine is sort of a stubborn thing to do; I know if I were to dig enough, I could find something