I've been following Steam guidelines and limits regarding sales. This week, I'm participating in Steam's Lunar New Year sale.

Regarding player retention: Regardless of what I implement, it's going to be tough. Most people just aren't going to play a game more than 10 hours (or less) these days, with so many choices and so many games regularly going on sale. I'm sure you've all seen players with hundreds even over a thousand games in their Steam library.

Current stats are decent with about 1/2 players playing more than 10 hours, 1/3 playing more than 20, 1/4 playing more than 40 and 1/10 becoming hard core players with a hundred to a few thousand hours in game.

Retention has improved over time but could and will be better as the game improves and more features are added. Of course I'll continue to do my best. I do keep things into perspective though. If 1/4 of players become long term players I'd be impressed.

Attracting more new players is key, I agree!

Through Steam I have a limited number of 'visibility rounds' I can use. These will be used with major upcoming updates and are the best next step to draw new traffic. Participating in Steam site wide sales is a mixed bag and they've been changing their system to better promote a variety of games during their site wide sales. The actual discount prices so far have been interesting as the price matters much less than the simple additional visibility during a sale.