This website is a work in progress, and will be continuously updated.

Last updated: 4/1/2024

Testimony from CoS Artists and Volunteers

Mature topics are marked with spoilers.

Announcement

Edits to the text above:

After extensive deliberation and collaborative efforts involving both former and current artists and executives at Twin Atlas, the closure of the Recognized Creator and Concept Developer system has been officially announced. Creatures of Sonaria will now be compensating its hired designers with full salaries. Many additional changes are still to come.However, I must emphasize that our concerns went ignored and unaddressed until this website was presented for public scrutiny, particularly by those in authoritative positions. Furthermore, I would like to explain the decision to keep this website active rather than archiving it.While Twin Atlas strives to rectify its mistakes, acknowledging them is paramount. People contemplating employment with a company that has historically mistreated its workers and volunteers should be informed of the company's past and present conditions.On a lighter note, I would like to thank the CEO of Twin Atlas Alertcodef, who not only embraced but also implemented our recommended changes to the system, willing to dismantling a complex and unfair structure. Most importantly, I would like to extend my gratitude to the community for shedding light on this website and the mistreatment of artists. Your collective efforts contributed to the dismantling, reconstruction, and improvement of this system. Without your involvement, none of these changes would have occured.Finally, this is a message to those who have testified or those who may desire to. If you’re interested in sharing your experience with Twin Atlas or Sonar, my DM’s are always open.Thank you.

Sincerely, Ghostmysterios - Former Recognized Creator

Before you read, please know that fellow non-staff CoS employees, such as moderators, testers, and concept developers are equally unpaid, exploited, and overworked. This document serves to warn those interested in working for Sonar Studios and promote systemic change.These testimonies’ purpose is to share the thoughts and experiences of people, not necessarily provide completely accurate evidence. Whether or not testimonies are taken as true or false is completely up to the reader.

“I’m officially resigning from my role as a Recognized Creator for Creatures of Sonaria, and this is why. It's clear that I'm not valued as a creator there. I did my best to try and change this system for the better with the system changes document, but it's evident that Bear's work and mine were not valued there either.To elaborate, me and Thebearistoothic (Xol) were one of two Recognized Creators who put together a system changes document according to the majority opinions from other RC’s and CD’s. Xol was demoted shortly after the document was completed due to ‘poor behavior’, which, was absolutely bull and what I believe to be an effort to silence ‘controversial’ creators. We created this this document completely of our own volition. Approximately a fourth of the way through the document, we were given a sudden due date by Sonar (3 days to complete a majority of the document). The document was rushed to completion, not allowing us to include many details and additional requests for Sonar. Upon the abrupt completion of the document, RC’s and CD’s were gathered together in a “Town Hall” to discuss the document. However, it wasn’t a discussion, rather a one-sided announcement of what they accepted, denied, or ignored from our requests. What resulted was 7 of our 17 requests being greenlit. These mainly included requests for bare minimum disclosure requirements, such as age requirements, disclosed activity requirements, and RC capacity. Most dissapointingly, the biggest change higher-ups put into place was of their completely own volition. That was to make the Recognized Creator role a “rookie” role with icon submissions and the ocassional asset, while Concept Developers would be the creators who would get creature prompts. Any artist who wasn’t promoted to Concept Developer status was not told why, or was demoted from the role completely. Recognized creators will no longer receive Verza, and do not have plans to have any reward creature for their hard work. For anyone curious, here is the changes document in its final state after it was reviewed by higher-ups. Artist Changes DocumentI have never been paid adequately for the substantial amount of work I've done for Sonar. After doing the calculations considering multiple people’s income’s who work there, a minimum wage job you work once a week would pay more than quadruple the amount that Sonar does—Not accounting for the hours upon hours of unpaid work. We are treated as employees disguised as volunteers for Sonar's benefit. Are “volunteers” paid for their work? Are “volunteers” disqualified from volunteering due to "too long" of a work leave? Commercial compensation is crucial in this industry, and the meager amounts paid for our designs are unacceptable. Minors cannot relinquish their commercial rights to a design, yet HR continues to deny this. Sonar claims they can't afford to pay us more, but this is just an excuse to underpay artists and exploit young and vulnerable talents. I regret taking on this role as my introduction to the industry, as it has exemplified all the negative aspects of the game design industry.I want to thank those who have admired my work, your compliments mean the world to me. Additionally, I want to express my gratitude to my fellow artists and developers who provided constructive critiques and support in the highly competitive environment. Artists who remain with Sonar are all incredibly talented and creative individuals with immense potential. I genuinely hope that those who stay can find better opportunities than Sonar in the future. Personally, I am moving on; I'm working hard towards a degree in digital arts and technology while starting up my small business.”- Ghostmysterios, Former Recognized Creator

UPDATE: “As of January 2024, I am pleased to say that Twin Atlas has addressed and resolved the concerns I had regarding the concept artist system. I did not expect how swiftly and thoughtfully our resolve would come, and I extend my gratitude to Alertcoderf and his efforts in helping us achieve it. It took thorough, lengthy communication on both sides to properly remedy the situation, but what Alert demonstrated was that Twin Atlas was capable of acknowledging and acting on criticism. With these changes in place, I can now confidently put my previous concerns to rest and look forward to Twin Atlas's continued positive growth.”

"I was a Recognized Creator for over a year, dutifully following Sonar Studios in relative silence. In that time, with dozens of submissions and hundreds of hours poured into my work, I received 5k Robux in total, the DevEx equivalent of $12. The illusion of opportunity at Sonar Studios is and always will be a complete lie, and I am glad I was removed from the team before I could waste any more of my time. This, however, is the least I was concerned of as a part of the RC team. Sonar team managers and communicators continue to manipulate artists (majorly young, impressionable children) into working for free--demeaning them publicly and behind backs. When their manipulative system was ever challenged (often by myself), they shut us down through threats of server mutes, and never addressed us or our thoughts professionally. When I continued to push for change (better payment, more time between prompts, thoughtful communication, etc.), after the RC Requests & Concerns document had been submit, I was demoted for "behavioral issues" and "multiple ModMail reports made in quick succession". Any request I made to see proof of these reports was denied. Credit of art guides I had made were removed purposefully and made to seem as though the original message by me disappeared, and the RC team was told I had left for personal reasons. The blatant lies constructed by Sonar Studios to frame me as something more than an advocate was sloppy and known false to multiple moderators and developers, though no one wanted to risk their position prying into my case. A years worth of manipulation, mistreatment and dishonesty cannot be easily summarized, I only hope that whoever reads this questions the integrity of Sonar Studios."Image Evidence- xol (Thebearistoothic), Former Recognized Creator

- sonar has a history of failing to pay due and fair wages. they owe me 15k robux. they owe another artist 10k- illegal employment of minors. i was employed at 15, the youngest minor artist employed was 13.- exploited as child labor by creating concepts at the cost of 5k robux (12.50 USD), forced to relinquish commercial rights when there were no terms stating so- multiple artists have had their concepts turned into robux creatures to generate more revenue. some artists were not notified as certain robux creatures were prompted, and ALL artists weren’t paid extra”
> yes, they aren’t obliged to pay more, but at least tell the unprompted artists as a courtesy so that they may be given an option to decline having their creature be turned into paid content knowing well they will miss out on additional compensation. this goes on top of already having little pay and no commercial rights compensation btw- mistreatment and intimidation by HR and staff- zoophilia Image Evidence- condoning lolicon & pedophilia Image Evidence- racism- fetishization Image Evidence- cultural appropriation* Image Evidence demonstrated by developers.
*refused to allow changes to concepts despite artist protests- multiple instances of concept theft and/or copyright infringements by developers (Images below)

“The artist asked an admin about compensation after the icon won, and was told ‘sorry too bad’ because the studio mistakenly picked two winners in a rushed icon contest. as it ‘wasn’t used,’ the winning icon was uncompensated.”

“there is disdain towards the recognized creator team and i say this as someone who had access to the moderation channels. demeaning commentary by moderation team who were annoyed of rec team’s concerns in the staff chat, and instances of private shittalking in the modmail tickets of the recs themselves. this also applies to any modmail ticket with a complaint, where moderators would complain using a command (=) that would ensure the comments are not sent to the user modmailing. yes there aren’t screenshots as obviously, i have stepped down. as seen by existing ss, unsanitary behavior performed by a former game manager is reason enough to be concerned about how the rest of hr views the team. erythia has also had multiple well-known public and private spats with both her teams and community members and cannot be moderated. if someone was banned for a menial reason, moderators couldn’t mediate due to the fact that it was an “ery ban” and the banned user would have to wait for months. she has dmed vocal recognized creators to intimidate with demotions.”

- Anonymous, Former Recognized Creator, Moderator

“Hi guys as someone who’s been working several roles (including concept developer) at cos for a very long time I don’t suggest you join as the higher ups mistreats any artist no matter the rank, whether it’d be subtly or randomly out of no where. They don’t take our cases seriously at all and even mixed peoples’ punishments up. And if you get designs in, yeah you do get paid, but sonar pretty much has all rights to your concept and won’t pay you extra if they use it as merchandise or use the design in the series. Peace out dear friends. Stay safe.”- Anonymous, Former Concept Developer

“The main reasons for me to leave are, this is no longer a enjoyable place for us artist anymore, HR tends to split us into 2 groups to divide our community. Also the environment are getting more and more toxic, which I hate about it. Lastly, I want to say... ghost, xol and others did such a good job just for us recs, i really appreciate the work yall put in. Make sure yall have a good break, get happier place and be free from cos stuff soon.”- Anonymous, Former Recognized Creator

- I wasn’t paid the minimum for what my concept was worth- I got demoted for something I said outside of Sonar (In response to a developer being weird and racist)“For those who are still with CoS, you are being taken advantage of. Please know you are valued in other places.”- Anonymous, Former Recognized Creator

“As a former rec artist for almost 3 years, I would not keep working for the greedy team that has been treating us very poorly (not just recs, but other roles too). After the split up between recs and concept artists, recs might as well be just renamed to asset artists.”- Anonymous, Former Recognized Creator

“Although I haven’t been on the team since the beginning I’ve been apart of the cos artist team long enough to have seen and been apart of things I’d assume would not happen in a studio so big. (A lot said above but that is certainly not all) That said if you plan to apply for rec artist I HIGHLY advise against it.Bans and demotions are often spontaneous with little to 0 warning, if the details of a ban and demotion are asked for an unsatisfactory response is near guaranteed.I have wasted easily over 100 hours towards very little of my work being accepted and to my knowledge little to none of my work have even been so much as considered. And by chance your concept does get accepted after who knows how many hours spent before hand expect to be paid very little in terms of actual money.The moderation team, dev team and general HR are often unprofessional in terms of criticism, announcements and general moderation this was made no more clearer when earlier in the year leaking had become an issue and the moderation team represented by tokaliz sent an extremely unprofessional and degrading message with the aim of “informing us” (Image to the right)Cos does not deserve the talent it currently has and if you’re considering becoming part of the team I highly advise working for another studio.”
- Anonymous, Current Concept Developer

Cultural Insensitivity, Appropriation, and UnprofessionalismWolfragon encouraging the team in the recognized creator channel to make a “wendigo” creature. After politely being told to not use the term for her concept by several artists, she guilt tripped chat.

Disrespecting ArtistsAolenus redesign prompt was revealed to be a phoenix. On the wiki, it was specifically stated by Aelures that Aolenus is not a phoenix. Higher-ups implying because an artist did something “bad” (which is highly subjective), their wishes can be disrespected.

- “big cut of profit goes into artist pay”> cos is shown to be capable of making 100k usd in a single update (weekly)
> artists are paid 152 usd (45k robux converted through devex) (1-2 per week)

Response to Sonar StudiosOnce again, staff continues to refer to us as volunteer workers. Additionally, they leave out the competitive part of the artist system. Artists are paid in robux, yes, but ONLY if their work is chosen through the highly competitive design contests that can involve 5-30 different artists, all with highly competent artistic abilities.

Response to StaffThe many who contributed to the website are ABUSED. Not to mention the ridiculous power imbalance between a company and the volunteers who are contributing to this website. Testimonial is testimonial. Are we benefiting from our contributions and our speaking out? No, we aren’t. Several artist demotions and punishments have occurred to us for speaking out, in fact. Most contributors to this website are former workers for Sonar, and receive no benefits for speaking out. This websites’ purpose is to inform the people who may potentially want to work for Sonar in the future. Sonar Studios is a for-profit company that benefits from denying the claims made against them—as they have a public image to uphold. In the end, it is completely of people’s own volition whether they want to believe us or believe Sonar.

- Anonymous, Former Recognized Creator

“Prefacing this thing by saying to please never work for Sonar if you’re planning on it. I know it’s tempting, because the thought of getting something into a game is very cool. But that was my mistake. I first joined the Sonar server in very late 2020. It was one of the earliest games I discovered on Roblox. I joined out of curiosity, then became engrossed in the whole thing.Once I joined the server, I saw that there were many ways for people to create creatures for the game, so I gave it a shot. I made it, submitted it, then it got accepted and was made official. I was ecstatic. At that point, it was a highly anticipated creature. People were so excited for it. But eventually, time went on and it was slowly forgotten about. People would still ask about it but development on it had stopped.I kept asking for updates, but got hardly anywhere. Nearly THREE YEARS went by with hardly a word said to me. By that time, the creature itself had gone through multiple redesigns up to that point. I was given a potential release date and was so excited. Date came and gone, and nothing. A while after, I learned that one of the main developers was holding it back because they themself didn’t want it in-game. It didn’t fit in, and it looked too basic and simple. It was also compared to another creature, which hurt a lot. I was told it looked too similar, despite it existing before the other had. And they were essentially in a symbiotic relationship in lore, so it made sense- but I was told it wasn’t wanted because of this. [CoS staff also have a horrible habit of comparing creatures.]It was then that I learned that what I made was openly disrespected in a public chat, and I tried to defend myself in the same public chat a while after I found out. I was told I was inappropriate and immature. Sonar Studios treats all of its artists terribly, and the pay is worse. We’ve asked for change, we’ve asked for better treatment, and all we’ve gotten is the absolute bare minimum.Sonar Studios does not value its artists. We’ve fought tooth and nail to even get credit for the icons we’ve made, let alone credits in-game. For being there nearly 3 years at this point, I’ve only gotten one icon in, a couple event assets, and that’s it. No creatures, nothing. I’ve wasted probably HUNDREDS of hours on this game, trying to get something in. Genuinely, if you’re thinking of applying, please reconsider. There are so many better places to work for than Sonar. It’s an absolutely terrible start.We’re forced to compete against each other in these endless competitions, hundreds of hours of work is wasted, artists are hardly paid and even barely recognized. We had to fight to get Verza, and we’re not even allowed a role in-game because we were practically deemed ‘not important enough’. Not to mention the torturous deadlines we’re always given, and some of the most ridiculous and out-of-pocket bans i’ve EVER seen.At some point very very soon, I will be leaving this role. I’ve been disrespected far too much by some of these people and I can’t tolerate the treatment any longer due to the immense toll it’s had on my mental and physical health. And i’ll be saying one last time, because I cannot stress the importance of it enough: If you’re thinking of applying, please reconsider. It’s not worth it, and it’s SUCH a massive waste of time.The only real good thing this role has brought me is absolutely amazing friends, i’ve met so many wonderful people and i’m so glad. I’m so grateful for every kind thing people have said to me. It’s made such a difference, I don’t think i’d be where I am in art if it wasn’t for them. I will always thank them endlessly for their kindness.”

An addition to my testimonial: So, I got demoted. I was due to resign at some point in November, but my role was removed early due to [still currently] unknown reasons. I don’t mind it, and I was still given permission to trade away my last Verza restock thankfully, but my demotion isn’t a very surprising one. The way it happened was surprising, but not the demotion itself.When my demotion occured, I was in game-discussion in the Discord server. I was kindly and honestly answering questions about the Recognized Creator position, and after I had said thank you to people for standing with the artists, I was abruptly muted and demoted at that point. The Mod team played no part, and at this point i’m still unsure as to why it happened-However, Alert did kindly get me unmuted as the mute did turn out to be a misunderstanding. However, I was not reranked in the Discord server as there wasn’t really a point, which I understand. But, despite that, i’m still hoping and waiting for an official reason/response to me being demoted. And as of adding this, I’ve heard things about very good changes that may occur within the Rec Program. I hope that, if I so choose at some point, I can reapply within.Another addition: As of saying this, I was kindly reached out to by Alert. We talked about Delmothins situation, and after deliberation and discussion, Alert kindly paid me for the concepts of Delmothin that were modeled but ultimately weren’t used. I’m very grateful to FINALLY have this happen, as it was very long overdue, and I appreciate Alert for their efforts on trying to rectify this whole situation. There is still a LOT to be said and done, but this is a good start.I will continue to heavily thank everyone that’s been, supported, and stayed with the artists. I’m glad people are reading this and taking us seriously.

- Tiberioustat2s / Susan Murphy, Former Recognized Creator

“I want to clarify that many of the egregious things that my peers have gone through have not happened to me personally. It is terrible that these things ever happened to them and that many of their first experiences in the art industry was this. This being said, I want to cover a some of my personal experiences from a professional standpoint- to reemphasize how bad the work environment still is, as well as the complete insensitivity of the upper management at CoS.Coming into the team, I was already somewhat skeptical. The way to apply for this huge, successful, big-name studio was... through a Google Form? Nowhere to email someone directly, to email my portfolio, etc.; it already felt very distant and unprofessional. Being accepted, there was no communication of this at all, no contract presented, no list of responsibilities/expectations, absolutely no transparency- I just opened Discord one day to see I had a few more channels accessible and put the pieces together. Obviously, I was ecstatic at being accepted- this huge studio chose me to contribute to their game, who wouldn't be? So, I overlooked it.

After a couple months, I noticed many cracks- namely the blatant disrespect for our work and the lack of communication between the teams. As was reflected in the application process, their poor communication AND lack of care to communicate was translated into the actual work environment. A lot has been covered above, but one more instance I was personally there for was a miscommunication when Erythia said ingame credits would no longer be pursued and she would use ChatGPT to replace our creature descriptions. Although she was away on vacation with bad wifi, this statement was dropped without clarification/context. It was labeled a miscommunication since she apparently meant to say just Grammarly (I am still skeptic since she still often relies on ChatGPT in her work ethic, just search up ChatGPT from:Erythia on Discord.) Then, Alertcoderf clarified it on her behalf, as it had to do with UI taking up too much data during the testing phase of recode; she didn't even take accountability for causing this miscommunication. Something this huge like replacing our work with AI has severe implications and should not be tossed around lightly. This statement was absolutely unbeknownst to us artists, and it shows that she absolutely does not understand the weight of her words as a game developer/manager or value our work. One could argue "It's just a description, not the actual art," but look at the testimony above where TiberiousTats2 was promised a creature ingame for YEARS, had made multiple redesigns, and poured hundreds of hours into it- only to have Erythia tell us she scrapped it out of the blue. She made no attempt within the past two years to communicate this at all to Tib. I and many RCs were personally witnessed this conversation; why did Tib have to find out in a semi-public chat, years down the line, that their concept was scrapped? Additionally, this conversation wasn't even prompted by Tib, but they had to spontaneously find out through another unrelated artist who happened to bring the topic up. Erythia did not acknowledge, much less apologize, for how badly her actions hurt Tib, when multiple artists (including Tib) were telling her directly. Then, she said that this situation could've been handled maturely in DMs, when she was the one who openely discussed it first. To this day, she still has not taken accountability for her actions, and Tib has not received compensation for all four redesigns.

(Edit: Following this document, Alert has has reached out to Tib personally and has paid for the designs that have been modeled. Additionally, he has done this independently; Erythia was not involved in this exchange.)

Now, for the area that's had a lot of back and forth tussle- payment. Please note that for both volunteer and employee laws regarding remote work, these are determined by the state that volunteer/employee resides in. In my state specifically, where there are multiple RCs/CDs, to be considered a volunteer you have to be two things 1) Providing your services freely without coercion or pressure from the organization and 2) Working under a public, non-profit organization. Although we are technically are providing our services freely because we are providing content without guaranteed compensation, there is still the incentive of being paid and receiving monetary compensation for being picked. Additionally, our positions are also threatened when we don't meet a deadline, even though this is a voluntary position- meaning that there is pressure from the company to work. Before coming onto the team, there was no clarification on this. Finally, Twin Atlas is a private, for-profit organization, making what they are doing highly illegal. Volunteer/employee laws may vary from state to state, and while these may not apply to everyone, even just happening to one person is inexcusable. On another note, Sonar claims to be using a commission-based system for ANY work- icons, assets, creatures, UGC items etc. However, this requires a formal contract, written and/or verbal (in my state always written), and note that is only between a company and their employee. By their logic, if we are just volunteers and not "formally employed" through a contract, then what they are doing is illegal. And, because we are providing our services for a company (not a public, non-profit), with a verbally and/or written agreed upon wage/hours before entering the program, we are considered employed, and what they are doing is still illegal. Additionally, by employing minors on their team (some of whom were below the legal federal working age), they are able to extort legal loopholes, as contracts with minors are not legally enforceable. Sure, some of them may be from different countries, but the youngest (13) was employed when the legal age is 16 (with parent consent.) Just because they don't practice this anymore, doesn't release them of liability from any past actions at all. And, while this position may be voluntary and labeled as "volunteer work" as set in the written agreement, legally the work we are doing does not make us volunteers; "voluntary" only applies to the hours that we work/how often we work, not that we work for free. Who would want to work for a company that essentially promises a slim chance at being paid and wastes most of its employees' work?On a separate note, it is repulsive that Erythia has publicly announced her hatred for this game and working on it. She also admits to purposely ignoring and devaluing community feedback if it consumes more than 20-30 seconds of her time. When people disagree with her and call her out, she either 1) argues with them in an unprofessional way 2) swiftly attempts to change the subject by sending cat or plant pictures or 3) threatens to call a mod to have that person banned. Additionally, she hardly ever takes accountability for her actions; either Alertcoderf or one of the HR leads cover for her. The obvious answer is that Erythia should step down if she hates the game so much. She is as unprofessional as you can get; what kind of game developer says they hate their own game in front of 160k+ people to see? Furthermore, who would want to work for someone like this, and pour hours upon hours of work into content for someone who doesn't appreciate it?While there are many problems with upper management, it is clear as day Erythia is the main offender in this. Erythia is everything a game developer SHOULDN'T be, and she should not be one of the co-owners of the game if she is not passionate or professional about it. CoS upper management, if you want to see this game in the long run, please change Erythia's behavior or remove her from the team. She is holding you guys back.”

- Anonymous, Current Recognized Creator

False demotion, drawn-out re-promotion, false promises madeWHY I GOT DEMOTED
(falsely, then promoted back. then promoted back again after 3 millennia)part 1: got demoted from rec role during activity purge when i was actually active back then. this had to be pointed out by monte, otherwise i probably wouldve never been reranked as rec. tokaliz was like “mb bro” in my dms, and that was that.part 2: until this happened- i was like “hello moderator can i get CA back” and erythia was like “no lol, go to modmail and ask abt it maybe”
so i go to modmail and this happens:(See screenshots)
- Xiriah, Former Recognized Creator

“Overall, my working experience with sonar has definitely been a wild ride. Currently I am not working with them anymore, but honestly thank God. I can definitely say with 100% certainty that I've felt extremely stressed under the many deadlines and competitive prompts for the creatures. None of which I have ever "won"—until after I got one of the (imo) most over-exaggerated unnecessary bans, which didn’t even feel satisfying. I’ve always dreamed of having a concept ingame whether I fully made it or not, but after actually getting one in game it just leaves a bitter taste, it’s not worth it.— I can speak for myself and many others who have probably thought, 'do they even like my designs?' 'What am I doing wrong?'.In the end honestly it wasn't even worth all the stress and deadline meeting. The hard work and hours seems to never be valued, considering the fact you’re basically being enslaved under them is a full-on job, the community and staff overall never seem to appreciate anything. Staff members would take away our permissions and scorn us as if we were toddlers, which i have seen my peers many times desperately try to fight back for it. In such a volunteer-based work environment, taking away such basic freedoms is honestly disheartenening. However, despite these downs, I did meet a whole group of awesome people and to this day still interact with them, and I thank them all for now being some of the closest people I talk to”- Zaltariaz, Former Recognized Creator

“I was a rec for, I'm gonna say, maybe 2-3 years, before then I was around on the discord server before the game was even called Creatures of Sonaria, so I've seen a lot. I like to say I'm a lurker, interacting with people isn't really my forte, because of that, I decided to submit a creature design to the (at the time) public creature submission channel, as I had always wanted to contribute creatively in some way to a Sonar game. Like many other recs here, I regret joining the team as it has only caused stress and the fear of being demoted or banned was constant. A few years ago, CoS and another game with a similar concept got into quite a nasty bit of drama, designs being compared to one another and people being banned left right and center on both discord servers, even if they hadn't infringed on any of the server rules, but had merely commented on the situation. I was one of these people who ended up being banned on the CoS server due to a non-malicious comment I had made about how Erythia and CoS management were dealing with the drama, a comment I made in a private channel on a different server. Although I and other users had our bans appealed, this still left a sour tasted in my mouth, especially regarding the higher-ups.I managed to hang onto my rec role even after I think 2 major rec purges where artists were removed due to inactivity or 'lack of quality concepts'. The latest purge booted around 15 or so artists, I was also removed due to inactivity, which I was pretty annoyed about due to the fact that I had finally gotten a creature design accepted into the game. I was a bit disheartened by this because I expected the staff to provide us with a little more time to make content if our activity was dropping, (especially those who recently had designs accepted) but in my case, I wasn't even given a heads-up before being demoted due to inactivity. I wasn't aware that I hadn't been as active as they'd like and I didn't have time to read the recognised creator announcement that was made soon after the town hall meeting, I was still knee deep in exams and personal matters at the time.All in all, I will not be reapplying for the rec role, and neither should you. Please find work elsewhere as Sonar does not fairly treat or pay their artists. I myself am trying to distance myself from Roblox related concept work as the pay is inhumane at best. I would also like to add that there was pretty rampant competition in the rec team. Because of the constant competition, a lot of us felt inadequate and there was always a downhearted feeling when you'd spend hours working and designing a creature for a prompt or freeform, only for it to be ignored (or even in some people's cases, copied).”- Anonymous, Former Recognized Creator

“Starting off, I'm Gummy (formerly known as aelures), and I used to be a concept dev for cos.TLDR: Horrible, unfair workplace environment for everyoneAlot of the issues mentioned have already been spoken about by others, so I won't go into much of that. I've seen and experienced the treatment every artist has went through.- I have seen multiple times where there was obvious favoritism within the concept system, you would see the same 10 artists (I, included) have their concepts in-game. It was worse when the 'Concept Developer' position was introduced, it felt like the HRs split us by "best artists" and "mediocre artists". It was a terrible workplace environment for a young artist to be in. So many times I have seen Rec Artists express their feelings about not being able to do anything for CoS other than icons and assets. It was to a point that us Concept Devs had to convince the HRs to atleast give them a creature prompt a few times. It has been mentioned before that the pay rates for CoS were absurdly low. Literal dimes and pennies, and it would've stayed that way hadn't the artists fought tooth and nail for better pay. Funny thing is, right after changing payment prices is when they made ConDev roles, and made those prices exclusive to us.- Many times I have publicly spoken out and gave criticism on the state of the game, and was just brushed off as "disrespectful behavior".- I've had friends who worked for different roles on CoS tell me how the HRs treated them. Testers were forced to cram and playtest whenever updates came up, CCs for CoS got a slap on the wrist when breaking rules, editors and translators not even given an ounce of thought by the team. This company was founded on exploiting artists and people.My final breaking point was when I joked around in the Rec Chat, saying I would give my ConDev role to those who wanted it and how disappointed I was with the current state of the game. I would be DMed by Erythia, and after reading the message I decided that all my efforts and criticisms would never be heard, so I left. I'm not proud to admit that my actions a year ago were hurtful, where I leaked tons of stuff. It was all in a spur of the moment, I was fed up, angry and disappointed at the state of CoS.I hope moving foward every artist that were given false hopes and promises by Sonar continue pursuing their art careers in companies that actually value them and their talents.”- Aelures, Former Concept Developer

Testimony- Name, former or current Recognized Creator or Concept Dev
Contact Information (if desired)