Lily Mansfield

"The payoff when things work the way you'd planned is awesome. And the segment is finally finished. …Well, until our test department finds a way to break it…"

―Mansfield, on the process of level design for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds^[3]

Lily Mansfield, credited as Lily Childs,^[1] Brandy "Lily" Childs^[2] and Brandy M. Childs,^[4] is a level designer^[2] who worked on various Star Wars video games published by LucasArts.

Biography[]

"Apparently one of the reasons they were interested in me joining the level design team for that particular project is real-time strategies were not my strong suit, ironically enough. They figured that since this was going to be a Star Wars title they really wanted to make sure that it wasn't inaccessible to people who didn't play real-time strategy or didn't understand how real-time strategy worked."

―Lily Mansfield, on her transition into level design for Galactic Battlegrounds^[5]

Mansfield started out working in technical support for LucasArts,^[5] including product support for the 2000 vehicular combat game Star Wars: Demolition.^[4] She put her name in contention to work in level design for the real-time strategy game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and was surprised when she was accepted, having no experience in that genre. She realized that she was given that position to provide a novice's perspective and offer adjustments to support casual players.^[5]

Santaram, Mansfield's novelty ceramic statue that inspired the name of SRAM-13 in *Galactic Battlegrounds*.

Mansfield designed a level for the Wookiee tutorial campaign, which had been outlined by Reed Knight and developed by John Stafford.^[5] She collaborated with fellow designers Kevin Schmitt and Don Sielke for feedback. Mansfield also ran focus group testing for the tutorial and contributed to a developer diary created by the level design team, which was published on the LucasArts website. She wrote about the process of trial and error involved in game design and commented that she could recite all of Qui-Gon Jinn's lines.^[3] Mansfield also chose the name of the character SRAM-13, who was mentioned in the final level of the tutorial campaign, as a reference to Santaram, a ceramic statue of a goat with Santa Claus's head that she owned and kept at her office at LucasArts.^[5]

In 2002, she was thanked in the credits for the starfighter combat game Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter,^[6] though she was unsure what had warranted her inclusion, speculating that it was either due to her giving feedback to those working on the game or the influence of her husband at the time, G.W. Childs.^[5]

Mansfield reprised her role as a level designer for the expansion to Galactic Battlegrounds, Clone Campaigns,^[7] which was developed concurrently with the development of the prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. To develop the storyline of the game, the level design team signed non-disclosure agreements and were given the opportunity to individually enter a locked room to read the shooting script of the film. Mansfield designed the first two levels of the Separatist campaign. The second level features the Kaer Orbital Platform, a name Mansfield chose as a variation of the Welsh word "caer", meaning fortress.^[5]

She provided additional art for the 2002 action game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter,^[1] including graffiti for seedy locations. She was at one point instructed to remove bolts from her artwork, as bolts were not previously included in Star Wars media. Alongside other Clone Campaigns level designers, Mansfield was also involved in the development of a game codenamed Pangea, LucasArts' own attempt at creating a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game was not originally developed as a Star Wars project, but became one at some point prior to its cancellation.^[5]

Works[]

Gameography[]

Year	Title	Contribution(s)	Notes
1999	Star Wars: Pit Droids	Product Support	Uncredited^[5]
2000	Star Wars: Force Commander	Product Support	Uncredited^[5]
2000	Star Wars Math: Jabba's Game Galaxy	Product Support	Uncredited^[5]
2000	Star Wars: Demolition	Product Support	Credited as Brandy M. Childs^[4]
2001	Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds	Level Design	Credited as Brandy "Lily" Childs^[2]
2002	Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter	Thanks	Credited as Lily Childs^[6]
2002	Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns	Level Design	Credited as Brandy "Lily" Childs^[7]
2002	Star Wars: Bounty Hunter	Additional Art	Credited as Lily Childs^[1]