Titanfall 1: R101-C Assault Rifle

Early in the development of R1 (Titanfall), we knew that we needed the sci-fi equivalent of the M16/M4 weapons platform. I got tired of referring to this new weapon as the "Space M4" and titled each weapon concept with the "RSPN" prefix. Since this was the most popular weapon internally, we referred to it as the RSPN-101. It was eventually shortened to the R-101.

We needed this weapon to compress and expand for when Pilots entered and exited Titans. We created "stow" versions of each weapon, with the R-101 expanding in the first-person view once drawn. It gave us a cool looking unholstering animation that gave this weapon a lot of character.

We designed the R-101 to be a fully field-modular platform, which allowed Pilots to quickly modify barrel length and other features to adapt to the environment. Indoor CQB would call for a shorter barrel and a forend grip modification. Long-range engagement would call for a longer barrel. We eventually settled on skipping the variability and using the R-101 geometry to create the D-101 DMR and CAR SMG.