Hey there, not a bad question at all! As far as I know if you've already paid money for the game it's classified as a donation, and not a payment that's linked to owning the game in any way, which means upon the Episode 9 release you would be required by itch.io to pay to access the files. We'll have a think about what we can do for people who have already made substantial donations , and we also want to thank you for your support! Every donation has helped immensely in the development of the game 😊