Is game development of this game stopped?

No, development is ongoing. There were some rather significant updates towards the end of 2023, and there is (at least in my opinion) a great-looking lineup of content coming this year!

I'm the developer of the core game, and I understand that from the outside, it sometimes looks like I don't do much, especially if there hasn't been an update for a while or if the updates seem to be mostly boring stuff. Game development is still my passion, I'm working on Unturned projects 100% lately (sometimes I do little side projects for various reasons like learning or experimenting, but not for at least the last 5-6 months), and I tend to get at least a standard workday every weekday. I've been having a lot of fun recently and feel very optimistic about the future!

Thanks, I hope it's worth the wait!

can you give an explanation as to the active botting of the game? if you are doing it, why?

In short: No, I'm not botting the player count.

To help clarify my side of this issue and prevent the spread of misinformation, I have written a support article here with more details: https://smartlydressedgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/20692302395028

Similarly, in the interest of transparency, I shared the server list player numbers for 2023 in a blog post here: https://blog.smartlydressedgames.com/2024/01/15/2023-server-list-stats/

Thanks shredder! :)

Thanks Nick! :)

Thanks for the kind words and your longtime support, Sharrac! :)