...but I just don't see a doomed project at this point.
If they can make a rudimentary alpha product with their current team and funding, then they're fine. But I think that's BEYOND a long shot. Let's just play math!
I'd consider a "rudimentary alpha" to consist of the following:
-One zone/dungeon with some monster packs in it (doesn't even have to be the full dungeon/zone)
-Serviceable UI showing the things important to the game - art would not expected to be final
-The basics of combat and how it flows - initial versions of a few skills, initial implementation of stats, maybe an idea of how resistances will play out, etc - basically anything that will have impact during combat should have a basic simple version of it in place that affects the fight
-The basics of being able to group and send a message to one another
-The basics of equipping gear, looting gear, and a basic inventory
This is something you show to people to get an idea of what's going on with your game. That makes it able to do a Kickstarter, or seek VC, etc.
Now what budget do they have to work with? $150k with a team of ELEVEN people. Of those eleven people, we have to assume most can't keep going without a paycheck. Lets be nice and say 8 of them need a paycheck (others having more money saved up, or only working part-time). We'll even round up to $160k funding. That's $20k per person. These guys are all touted as "years of experience", so being six figure dudes is probably a given. But you often take a paycut when you're working for a startup (I know I did). Lets say they're only making $70k each right now - should be plenty to keep paying the mortgage and feeding their family without too much of a quality of life difference. That's $5.8k/month.
That gives them less than 4 months to put this together - and that's still with a few dudes drawing $0 and everyone probably taking a paycut. The Kickstarter we got was what that team developed (minus Ben I think?) after 3-4 months of work.
Hey, maybe they already have what I talked about above, but they don't want to get trashed for alpha footage again. That'd be great - I still would love to play this game, I just think their approach is laughable. You don't create a startup with this many people who don't produce a consumable and you definitely don't focus on absolutely unneeded money drains like an office.