I doubt they would be debuting at NAMM if "the programmer has hit a brick wall"! laugh
well.. that poses the question "what does it mean to hit a brick wall?"
Does it mean "project over? we failed?"
Not in this case. The fact that the kickstarter exceeded its requirements to continue makes it pretty awkward to quit (not that some kickstarter projects that got fully funded haven't bailed on their commitment)
Does it mean "they hit a snag that slowed them down?"
In this case, yes. Reading the early information about the product, they were expecting to be shipping product in the middle of last year. It's still in development.
I think it's great that they are presenting it at NAMM. I also think that the kickstarter response is a pretty good indication of the interest in such a project, and that they are gonna sell the tar out of it. The cost to benefit ratio is better than any other MIDI controller I'm aware of.
It doesn't have to be limited to voice... you could play any instrument into it and turn it into midi. That's huge!