Continuing its push into freemium 3D social mobile games, Glu Mobile has extended beyond its gPartners scheme for established studios with a new contest open for any developers using the Unity game development platform.

We caught up with Glu's chief creative officer Giancarlo Mori to find out more about the thinking behind the contest.

PocketGamer: What's the inspiration behind the 500Gs contest?

Giancarlo Mori: Glu's gPartners are committed to the highest quality social, freemium games. We constantly strive to connect with the best independent developers, and the contest is a highly visible way to discover new, original, and innovative 3D social mobile games built on the Unity platform and playable on iOS or Android.

What's the reason for getting companies such as Unity and Sony Ericsson involved?

As the contest is targeting high end developers, we wanted to strategically align ourselves with top partners in 3D gaming who add exposure and value to the contest.

As we are leveraging the Unity platform for many of our internally developed games, we felt the perfect partner for the contest would be Unity. In addition to a global platform partner, we wanted to bring aboard a global handset manufacturer, and Sony Ericsson and the Xperia Play were a perfect match

Why do you think this will provide opportunities that Glu couldn't access via its traditional gPartners scheme?

One of our goals for the contest (aside from developing and procuring the highest quality 3D social mobile games) is to further the growth of the mobile gaming industry as a whole through driving higher quality standards, 3D, and social features.

The headline is a $250,000 publishing contract for the winner but what does that amount mean in terms of cash changing hands?

Three first, second and third place winners from each region will win cash prizes as follows: first place regional = $50,000; second place regional = $25,000; and third place regional = $10,000. The Grand Prize winner (selected from the three regional first place winners) wins a total of $125,000 cash plus the global publishing contract.

At what stage of development do games have to be to enter?

Games need to be in the first playable stage of development

How will issues such as IP ownership be shared between Glu and the winning developers?

Glu will engage with winning developer to craft mutually agreeable and standard industry publishing terms. Our goal is to support developers, not take their first born!

What do you think are the big opportunities remaining in 3D social mobile games?

3D social mobile games are still in the early phase of maturation. It is significantly more difficult to develop a 3D social mobile game than a typical premium, paid, one-time download game.

We feel one of the biggest opportunities for Glu is to continue to forge new ground and continue to solidify our leadership advantage in the 3D social mobile games space.

Thanks to Giancarlo for his time.