Not to sound like a n00b, but...

Okay, a while back I heard that a team of guys lead by Robin Hood was working on making a new Avara. Presumably, this project has been cancelled, correct?

I know that Ambrosia themselves aren't going to be doing anything with the series soon, but I wasn't sure whether or not the third pary group had given up yet.

There have been a few groups trying to make an Avara II. As far as I can tell, nothing has come out of it. If I remember correctly, the farthest that Robin Hood's team got was to be able to move around.
Juri was planning on releasing the code awhile back but I don't know what came of that.