The game IS non-profit.
The game being MADE FOR a non-profit organization which is an Anime Convention
The FUNDING comes from another non-profit organizion (not the Anime convention)
The game is ABOUT the convention.

The talk about speaking with a lawyer isn't aimed at the organisation.

As soon as something is delivered for the project the individual will be paid accordingly to the quickness of the delivery.

This is the issue. Who is going to determine how much the individual is paid? Will you be specifying up front how much they're going to get? Can you quantify when/if their payment is reduced, and by how much?

If you tell an artist they're going to get £500 for doing the graphics for the game, then they take a bit longer than planned and you reduce it to £450, then you have to think, will they have legal precedence if they decide to take action?

If you're going to be doing a sliding scale of payment, then you need to ensure that anyone coming aboard is aware of the scale, aware of who makes decisions about the payment, and the criteria to be applied.

The talk about speaking with a lawyer isn't aimed at the organisation.

Yes I know, but his first question was aimed at the fact that he didn't know what the exact details was in that area.

This is the issue. Who is going to determine how much the individual is paid? Will you be specifying up front how much they're going to get? Can you quantify when/if their payment is reduced, and by how much?

If you tell an artist they're going to get £500 for doing the graphics for the game, then they take a bit longer than planned and you reduce it to £450, then you have to think, will they have legal precedence if they decide to take action?

If you're going to be doing a sliding scale of payment, then you need to ensure that anyone coming aboard is aware of the scale, aware of who makes decisions about the payment, and the criteria to be applied.

This I have already described saying that that part has already been planned.
Everyone interested will be told up front about the scale. And how it works.
everyone will be informed specifically on the reasoning and if disagreement happens we'll figure it out on a personal scale.
We're not trying to be unfair in any way.
I know how the process of making a video game possible.

Plus everyone involved will get their name in the game.

This I have already described saying that that part has already been planned.
Everyone interested will be told up front about the scale. And how it works.
everyone will be informed specifically on the reasoning and if disagreement happens we'll figure it out on a personal scale.
We're not trying to be unfair in any way.
I know how the process of making a video game possible.

All we had been able to gather thus far was that "If they didn't do enough work, or didn't meet deadlines, their payment was lowered." You didn't specify any details, so understandably, questions were raised. We weren't trying to antagonise you or appear patronising, it is just an area that could potentially cause a lot of grief so we wanted to highlight that.

A sliding scale like you're proposing is entirely different from usual collaborative "share of royalties" that you usually see. You can't just say "You will receive X amount, unless you fail to meet deadlines in which case this will be lowered." The fact that you've said "if disagreement happens we'll figure it out on a personal scale" leads me to believe that you don't have contracts in place.

I would love to believe that anyone that I got to work with me would be sensible and calm enough to just work through any issues with me. But when it comes to handling money like this it needs to be purely professional, and the process needs to be completely transparent. If you're going to be working with friends, then maybe it's not necessary, but you're hiring employees.

You have to consider:
How much the employee is going to be paid.
What circumstances will reduce payment. (Not meeting quality, not meeting deadlines, less than expected output)
How you determine quality.
What the deadlines are.
How you determine output.
How much payment is reduced for each criteria.
Who makes the decisions on reducing payment.
What the minimum payment is.

and more than anything, you need to ensure that the employee is aware of all of these, and that he agrees; This is usually where an employment contract comes in. Maybe you have everything planned for all of this, but from what we've read so far it seemed like something that needed to be pointed out.

I just happened to pop-in here...

Check out http://rpgtoolkit.net. This is wonderful software for developing 2D sprite-based games. It comes with almost everything you need. The only other thing you'll have to download is a music composition software. I suggest Anvil Studio. It already has its own built-in coding language called RPGCode which isn't difficult and has a full reference available to you. Once you have completed your game you can make it into an EXE and distribute it as you please.

This software is designed for top-down RPGs, it can be used for creating a whole slew of games, including a platformer. Are you sure you mean platformer? Because the way you described the battles as 'Final Fantasy', I was thinking turn-based, which would be unique for a platformer.

I just thought it would be a better solution for you.

I just happened to pop-in here...

Check out http://rpgtoolkit.net. This is wonderful software for developing 2D sprite-based games. It comes with almost everything you need. The only other thing you'll have to download is a music composition software. I suggest Anvil Studio. It already has its own built-in coding language called RPGCode which isn't difficult and has a full reference available to you. Once you have completed your game you can make it into an EXE and distribute it as you please.

This software is designed for top-down RPGs, it can be used for creating a whole slew of games, including a platformer. Are you sure you mean platformer? Because the way you described the battles as 'Final Fantasy', I was thinking turn-based, which would be unique for a platformer.

I just thought it would be a better solution for you.

Unfortunately it's not. But thank you for the suggestion!
I just talked to some of the people from the RPG Toolkit community.
And it's not able to create a game that's fully functional on a browser.
Which is sort of one of the core aspects of the game design.

Due to the fact that the game has to have scoreboards/Leaderboards and will have certain aspects of it being tracked player-wise so as to enable prizes to be given out to very active players.
Like say if at a certain date, the person with the most XP earned will receive a free ticket to the Anime Convention (Such a thing is being discussed)

All we had been able to gather thus far was that "If they didn't do enough work, or didn't meet deadlines, their payment was lowered." You didn't specify any details, so understandably, questions were raised. We weren't trying to antagonise you or appear patronising, it is just an area that could potentially cause a lot of grief so we wanted to highlight that.

Yeah I get that, and I appreciate the concern.

A sliding scale like you're proposing is entirely different from usual collaborative "share of royalties" that you usually see. You can't just say "You will receive X amount, unless you fail to meet deadlines in which case this will be lowered." The fact that you've said "if disagreement happens we'll figure it out on a personal scale" leads me to believe that you don't have contracts in place.

No, contracts are not in place as of the moment, if it becomes a concern of the guys helping out then it'll be dealt with at that.
But I will have some sort of contracts prepared on the side, after getting them confirmed of course.

I would love to believe that anyone that I got to work with me would be sensible and calm enough to just work through any issues with me. But when it comes to handling money like this it needs to be purely professional, and the process needs to be completely transparent. If you're going to be working with friends, then maybe it's not necessary, but you're hiring employees.

Not necessarily.
I would of course prefer having mates to help me out with the project.
But if that's an impossibility then that'll be what is done.

You have to consider:
How much the employee is going to be paid.
What circumstances will reduce payment. (Not meeting quality, not meeting deadlines, less than expected output)
How you determine quality.
What the deadlines are.
How you determine output.
How much payment is reduced for each criteria.
Who makes the decisions on reducing payment.
What the minimum payment is.

Thanks a lot for the pointers! I appreciate it greatly!

and more than anything, you need to ensure that the employee is aware of all of these, and that he agrees; This is usually where an employment contract comes in. Maybe you have everything planned for all of this, but from what we've read so far it seemed like something that needed to be pointed out.

As mentioned before, I get that, and I appreciate the concern!