Outspark’s free-to-play, massive multiplayer online snowboarding gameProject Powder is now in open beta. Take heart, if you were denied entry to the closed beta, for your time has now come. Of course not all the functions are up and running (the ranking feature doesn’t work yet), but they will be once the commercial period begins…

Project Powder is a free massive multiplayer online (MMO) snowboarding game still in the closed beta phase, but that hasn’t stopped Outspark from announcing that it will be released commercially worldwide in August, 2008. Right now the closed beta phase is in effect until July 8, 2008, so players can help the developers out by testing and spotting any potential problems. The closed beta participants are also competing for some nifty prizes, so you may want to try signing up.

In Project Powder, players create a snowboarding avatar, and then head out to snowboard and perform tricks on one of 33 different courses. If you’re a beginner, you can play on your own until you figure out the tricks. If you think you’re pretty good, then you can challenge other players.