Mike Vilardi was an illustrator for numerous West End Games roleplaying books, articles, and short stories. Vilardi enjoyed creating new alien species, and repeated a number of original designs throughout his work, such as a stalk-eyed species. His work was frequently highly spoken of others involved in Star Wars products, such as Dan Wallace, who described his work as "constantly a joy," or Peter Schweighofer who described Vilardi's work as "incomparable." Current Star Wars artist Amy Pronovost also names Vilardi as one of her major influences.