Has XMP considered opening a Patreon page?
https://www.patreon.com/

Patreon put simply is a web site that enable fans to give money to content producers they want to support. With the creator offering higher rewards for the fans those who donate more.

For example, here is the Patreon of Studio Fow, a group who creates porn movies using SFM models.
https://www.patreon.com/fow

Patreon page holders can choose to be paid by their fans either once a month, or for every content submission posted to Patreon.

The fact that there are a lot of other adult games there and new people may come across their game seems reason enough to at least look into it, no?

Team Four Star just opened a Patreon Page and have already reached over 12,000 dollars per month.

Future Love Space Machine also has one
https://www.patreon.com/ripenedpeach?ty=h

Could really be worth considering starting one for XSP.

It is certainly worth looking into.

But we do need a clear view if it will help expand the team and speed up progress.

Extra cash is of course nice, but in order to hire more people we need a clear view on how long we can pay them.
This in order to deliver on the promises we make.

We are still a long way from the X-Moon University and I am not sure if it will allow us to make a big step.

It's a variable stream of monthly revenue but a stream of monthly revenue none the less.

I agree. After the release of version 3.2 it is worth looking into new options to speed up the development.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I know I'm reviving an old topic, but I've been browsing Patreon pages lately and some other projects with much much lower quality and ambition collect around 12k per month. And from what I've seen, this isn't rare to find xgame projects with at least 5k per month. This is indeed something worth investigating.

In any case, I can imagine it is always a struggle to plan for team expansion in this kind of market. Do not despair

Just to jump in here and give MHO. Many people over the last year have moved to patreon as a way to fund their work. I would go so far as to say that the funding model has changed over the last few years due to crowdfunding. A lot of companies now use things like patreon to supplement their income. But as with all crowdfunding endeavours it is subject to the whims of the community. I would be critical of any company that used this to pay it's employees.

On patreon people tend to give content to their patrons like early access or exclusive content. This means that someone has to spend time putting this together and keeping the site updated. If this means that someone from the team has to take time out of game development to do this then one has to way up the pros and cons.

I personally put aside $10 a month for patreon and give $1 to each company/content creator. I would support this project as it's hard to find good adult games out there and this is one of the best I have seen.

The games that last over time are the ones that can be modded, but this means more than just crowdfunding and giving out modding tools. It needs a holistic environment where the community has the support of the company and there should be few barriers to access.

Patreon as a way of keeping the community up to date and for getting the word out. As a system to make sure you are giving your community regular updates.
Yes. (You may even make the cash to pay the person for putting to information together.)
As a way to fund game development possibly a bad business model.

I know of a Web-comic artist who went from working a day job while doing the comic to working full time on the comic thanks to Patreon. He lost his day job and put up a Patreon account to try to stretch his limited resources until he got another job. People responded so well he was able to not only live off the account but hire a colorist. Granted his huge talent probably had a lot to do with it. His comic is #1 on Top Web Comics and not just because of the cheesecake (though there is some male and female). Others have used it successfully like the Green brothers. They have a staff of people to pay and I've yet to hear anyone complain about paychecks bouncing (something I have had happen with big companies). Of course the Green brothers don't rely on a singular revenue stream which is only common sense.
BTW the Web-comic link is http://grrlpowercomic.com/