Semi-healthy.com devlog · Neptune Vibes

Story · 10 posts · September 16, 2026 to October 31, 2026

One logo set for every brand

Every brand in the studio shares one logo template on standard canvases, and every logo comes two ways: spaced for small places, touching for big headers. Set side by side on the studio site's navy, the wordmarks then had to read on dark and look the same size.

One template: a mark, a stacked logo, an icon, a wide header logo and a name-only logo. Art Director, Iteration 4
Two sites had one icon file each, left for the browser to shrink. That's how tab icons get blurry. Art Director, Iteration 21
Four wordmarks were too dark to read on navy. RISEN! and ZEKE! keep their wooden letters, wrapped in a thick outline. Art Director, Iteration 42
Logos are sized by their letters rather than their whole picture, so a chef's hat no longer makes one look smaller. NeptuneVibes.com, Iteration 61

See more: all 10 posts in full

Art Director September 16, 2026 Iteration 2

Wide Luvzilla Games lockup

The first studio logo that pairs the mascot with the wordmark side by side, for site headers, banners and social images. The existing full lockup is square and suits tall spaces.
Delivered to LuvzillaGames.com.

Art Director September 16, 2026 Iteration 4

One logo set for every brand

Luvzilla Games, CHEF!, GENERAL! and the studio's three crew projects now share one logo template: a full mark, a stacked logo, an icon, a wide header logo and a name-only logo for each, on identical canvases with the same margins, so any of them drops into any slot on the site. Each brand also gets favicons, one-color icons and a social card.
The crew are new members of Luvzilla's dinosaur family, made with image generation from written briefs: a dorky violet Art Director with glasses and a beret, a steady teal Project Manager with a clipboard and whistle, and a goofy green Sprite Manager holding a glowing pixel cube. Luvzilla stays the red, mischievous main character.
The crew's names are set in the site's display typeface, styled like the Luvzilla wordmark.
GENERAL! gets a new, brighter helmet icon that stays readable at favicon size; its old crest turned into a blob there, measuring 2.65:1 against the site background where 4.5:1 is the minimum. The helmet measures 5.19:1.
CHEF!, GENERAL! and Luvzilla's earlier logos were hand-cropped one-offs. Each now has the same set, shown before and after.
Every icon was checked at 16 pixels against the site's dark background.
Delivered to LuvzillaGames.com, filling the empty icon and logo slots for the three crew feeds.
The CHEF! and GENERAL! brand decks now show the new logos on their covers, in the corner of every slide, and on a redesigned logo slide that also shows each icon at 64, 32 and 16 pixels.

Art Director September 16, 2026 Iteration 16

Luvzilla Games' share image

The image shown when a luvzillagames.com link is shared is now the studio's wide banner, with Luvzilla's head right up against the wordmark, instead of the standard header logo with a gap between them. It reads as one bold piece at link-preview size.
The site had tried it out first. Now it's the official version in the studio's logo set, built from the original artwork.

Art Director September 17, 2026 Iteration 21

Proper icon sets for two of the studio's sites

Two of the studio's sites had exactly one icon file each and left the browser to shrink it, which is how tab icons end up blurry. Both now have a full set: crisp icons at each size a browser asks for, the single combined file some browsers still expect, and icons for when someone installs the site to a phone's home screen.
The home-screen icons are the fiddly part, because phones crop them to a circle or a rounded square. Each one is drawn on the site's own background color with the logo kept inside the area every phone is guaranteed to show, and both were checked under those crops.
Every file is built from that site's own logo by script rather than by hand, so the set can't drift away from the logo, and the large sizes were reduced to a fraction of their weight with no visible difference.
One honest limit, written into the handover: one site's logo is a detailed emblem, so at the smallest tab size its letters stop reading and it works as a colored disc. Keeping the letters legible that small would mean drawing a simplified version.
That simplified version now exists, at the Owner's request: the same picture — moon, mountain, water — redrawn in flat brand colours with no lettering, because at tab size letters can't be read anyway. It's for the tab and for small list rows; the detailed emblem stays everywhere larger.

Art Director September 18, 2026 Iteration 24

Every logo now comes two ways: with a gap, and touching

Until now each brand had one way to put its character beside its name: side by side, with a clear gap. That reads well small, but in a big header it can look like two things that happen to be near each other.
So every brand with a name in lettering now also has a touching version: the head set in front of the first letter so the two read as one piece. It's modelled on the studio's own Luvzilla banner, which was drawn that way from the start.
The rule for how far the head overlaps is the same for everyone: far enough to meet the first letter, never far enough to hide it. Each one was checked up close to make sure that letter still reads whole.
Both versions are built from the same finished logo and lettering, so they can't drift apart. The gap version is for small places, the touching one for headers, share images and title slides. All art here comes from image generation.

NeptuneVibes.com October 30, 2026 Iteration 57

Wordmarks on the home page, and Sale Scout in Tools

Every "See it running" tile and every crew card now shows its own wordmark in place of a plain name (Owner, 2026-10-30).
The Tools cards show each tool's new logo, and Sale Scout has its own card, with a picture from its demo until its illustration arrives.

NeptuneVibes.com October 30, 2026 Iteration 58

Every name the same size on the home page

The wordmarks on the "See it running" tiles and the crew cards now share one letter height, so short and long names, and names with letters that hang below the line, look the same size (Owner, 2026-10-30). On narrow screens they all shrink together.

NeptuneVibes.com October 31, 2026 Iteration 60

B.G. Koch's painted wordmark

B.G. Koch's card in Websites shows its new painted wordmark: the name in glowing letters over a moonlit mountain lake, from the Art Director (Owner, 2026-10-31).
The walkthrough tile in "See it running" is now labeled "Request walkthrough".
Job Scout's and Stonk Bot's videos are re-recorded with their new logos.

Art Director October 31, 2026 Iteration 42

Wordmarks that read on the site's navy

NeptuneVibes.com's home page now shows each project's wordmark on a navy tile. Four were too dark to read there.
Semi-healthy.com's dark-green lettering is now the brand's cream. RISEN! and ZEKE! keep their wooden letters untouched, each wrapped in a thick outline of its own colour, ember orange and electric blue.
B.G. Koch got a new wordmark, painted like the book cover: frosted letters in a moonlit lake scene that fades into the page. A plainer serif version came first, and the Owner turned it down for being dull.

Also in: NeptuneVibes.com Semi-healthy.com Bgkoch.com RISEN! ZEKE!

NeptuneVibes.com October 31, 2026 Iteration 61

Even logos, Bgkoch.com's tour, and new crew videos

The game and website logos are sized by their letters rather than their whole picture, and set by eye beside the lettered names, so a logo with a chef's hat, a leaf or a subtitle no longer looks smaller than the names around it (Owner, 2026-10-31).
RISEN! and ZEKE! show their wordmarks outlined for the navy, and the Tools cards drop their large cartoon pictures and lead with each tool's logo (Owner, 2026-10-31).
Bgkoch.com has a tour video in "See it running", and the Project Manager's main video is now a real case of cutting the studio's AI use to a fifth, with its question-and-answer dashboard on its agent page. YouTube Caption Bot's demo and video run on seven made-up videos with their own thumbnails.

Semi-healthy.com October 30, 2026 Iteration 26

Kung Pao, chili, fourteen rice and stir-fry sides, and a pressure cooker Ropa Vieja

New recipes: Kung Pao Chicken, Hearty Beef Chili (dried beans, or canned when made easier), Mala Chicken Stir-Fry, Crispy Panko Salmon, Pineapple Habanero Salsa, Vietnamese Vegetable Fried Rice, and seven vegetable rice sides: Filipino garlic rice and Java rice, Turkish pilav, Greek spanakorizo and lahanorizo, Korean kongnamul bap and Shanghai-style cai fan.
Manna Butter Chicken is now just Butter Chicken. Kung Pao Sauce Base and Easy Kung Pao Chicken are retired in favor of the new Kung Pao Chicken. Old links to all three still open the right recipe.
Indo-Chinese Chili Chicken is rewritten restaurant-style. Chicken Kofte is cleaned up, and Afghan Chicken's easier version uses ground spices.
About forty recipes lost their notes, so each recipe is just the recipe. Most recipes now fit on one printed page.
The meal planner's shopping list only remembers what's ticked or already stocked for the meals in this week.

Semi-healthy.com October 16, 2026 Iteration 25

Every ingredient has a job in the method

Every recipe's ingredient list now matches its method: nothing is listed that the steps never use. Tuscan Chicken Pasta now actually cooks its pasta and uses its bacon and olive oil, Cajun Pasta says how to use its spice blend, and nine other recipes name the garnish, topping or optional extra they list.
Chicken Tikka Masala is simpler and clearer, with ghee used the way it's meant to be: stirred in at the end.
Air-Fryer Besan Pakora no longer has notes.

Story · 5 posts · September 26, 2026 to October 16, 2026

Semi-healthy.com: the meal planner opens up

The meal planner opened to everyone, building one shopping list from the week's recipes. The same day brought an easier version of some recipes, a cooking-time slider and a form to request a recipe. Later, each recipe began suggesting dishes that go with it, and the planner's ticks stopped carrying over.

The shopping list adds up ingredients across meals: "6 cloves + 1 tbsp garlic" from three recipes. Semi-healthy.com, Iteration 12
A plan is saved in the visitor's own browser; nothing is sent anywhere. Semi-healthy.com, Iteration 12
What a switch removes stays in place, struck through, so it's clear what changed. Semi-healthy.com, Iteration 13
A time slider narrows recipes to under 20 minutes, 30, 45 or an hour. Semi-healthy.com, Iteration 14

See more: all 5 posts in full

Semi-healthy.com September 26, 2026 Iteration 12

Meal Planner, open to everyone

The Meal Planner is on semi-healthy.com for everyone, in the menu on desktop and phones. A plan is saved in the visitor's own browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
A + on every recipe card, and in the recipe view, adds that recipe to the first open day of a rolling nine-day board. Meals move between days by dragging, or with a move menu on phones and keyboards.
A planned meal remembers whether "Make it healthier" or "Make it easier" was on, with chips on the board to change it later, and the shopping list buys what that version needs.
The shopping list adds up matching ingredients across meals — "6 cloves + 1 tbsp garlic" from three recipes — and counts "chopped fresh cilantro" and "cilantro" as the same thing. Tick items off as you shop.
The basket on an ingredient parks it under "Already stocked", remembered for later plans. The basket on a meal marks it as already shopped for and takes its ingredients off the list.
Meal cards on the board put the recipe name under the photo, so names no longer break mid-word on desktop screens.

on the live site: three recipes planned from their cards, the planner opened from the menu, items ticked off, garlic powder parked as already stocked, and a meal marked as already shopped for. The GIF alone tells the story, so the board still (011) was dropped from this entry (Owner, 2026-09-26).

Semi-healthy.com September 26, 2026 Iteration 13

Make it easier, and more healthier swaps

A second switch, "Make it easier", sits beside "Make it healthier" on Afghan Chicken, Glazed Ahi Tuna, and Cajun Cabbage and Sausage. Both can be on at once, in either order.
What a switch removes stays in place, struck through, so it's clear what changed. A swapped ingredient shows its original amount underneath.
Share links carry the switches, so a friend opens the same version you're looking at.
"Make it healthier" now reaches many more recipes: sugar and honey become Truvia or a zero-sugar honey substitute, and mayo, flour and wheat noodles become their lighter versions, in place of the "(or … for a low-calorie version)" notes the recipes used to carry.
Recipe text cleanups: most recipes now have clean numbered steps, and leftover notes, calorie claims and repeated amounts are gone.

"Make it easier" flipped on and off on the live Afghan Chicken: the whole spices are struck through, the garam masala amount changes, and the method becomes one marinade instead of two. Recorded 2026-09-26; it replaces the full-page before/after stills (012/013).

Semi-healthy.com September 26, 2026 Iteration 14

Time slider on the recipe search

A time slider under the ingredient search narrows recipes to Under 20 min, 30 min, 45 min or 1 hr; all the way right is All, the default. It replaces the "Under 30 min" tag.

the slider on the live homepage dragged from All through each stop to "Under 20 min" and back, with the recipes narrowing from 79 to 56, 43, 30 and 17. The slider and the results sit far apart on the page, so each frame stacks the two, captured at the same moment. Recorded 2026-09-26; it replaces the still (014), which showed one stop.

Semi-healthy.com September 26, 2026 Iteration 15

Request a recipe

A new "Request a recipe" form sits just above Contact, with "Requests" in the menu. Only the dish is required; notes, a name and an email are optional, and an email means we can say when it's up.
When a search comes up empty, a "Request this recipe" button carries the search straight into the form.
Both forms now quietly drop submissions from spam bots.
The small section labels on the light sections (Pantry, Requests, Contact) are easier to read: orange instead of pale yellow on cream.
Support the site now reads "a decade of systems designed to stay healthy".
Meal Planner shopping list: ingredients with a comma in their name ("boneless, skinless chicken thighs") keep their full name, so different cuts no longer merge into one "boneless" line.

Semi-healthy.com October 16, 2026 Iteration 24

"Good with", a printed logo, and nine new recipes

Good with: each recipe now suggests dishes that go with it, as photo cards you can click through: rice and sides for curries, kimchi and pickles for Korean dishes, and so on. It fills the empty space under the ingredients, and it never prints.
Printed recipes and shopping lists carry the Semi-healthy.com logo at the top, without pushing the recipe down.
Nine new recipes: Italian Meat Sauce, Caesar Roasted Broccoli, Vietnamese Salmon in Tomato Sauce, Chicken Tikka Masala, and five rice dishes: Indian Vegetable Pulao, Indian Masala Rice, Chinese Vegetable Fried Rice, Japanese Mushroom Takikomi Gohan and Korean Kimchi Fried Rice.
New "One Pan/Pot" and "Easy" tags on every recipe, and the homepage's One-pot shortcut uses them.
Lighter sweetener swaps that taste right: "Make it healthier" now uses half as much Truvia as sugar, as the package says, and brown sugar gets Truvia's brown sugar blend.
Meal planner: click a planned meal's photo or name to open the recipe in the version you planned; unticking "already have" brings that recipe's ingredients back; ticks no longer carry over to meals planned later.
Recipe updates: simpler Cajun Cabbage and Sausage and Dan Dan Noodles methods, a richer Pesto with a lighter "healthier" version, skinless salmon, and tidier notes.
Recipe cards use the same calendar icon for "Add to meal planner" as the recipe itself.

Salisbury Steak before: the recipe ends at Useful products. — "Good with" shows Mashed Cauliflower and Collard Greens; one click opens the side. — a printed recipe before: no logo. — the same print now: the Semi-healthy.com wordmark centered at the top, nothing else moved.

Semi-healthy.com October 10, 2026 Iteration 23

A clearer description when the site is shared

When someone shares semi-healthy.com, the preview now says what the site does: find recipes from the ingredients you have, flip any recipe to healthier or easier, and plan the week with one combined shopping list. Recipe links keep their own descriptions.

Semi-healthy.com October 7, 2026 Iteration 22

Cajun seasoning shortcut for the Cajun recipes

"Make it easier" on Cajun Pasta and Cajun Cabbage and Sausage swaps the pile of separate spices for salt-free Cajun seasoning. The amounts are balanced to keep each dish's flavor and heat, not just matched by volume: the pasta keeps a little extra cayenne, since it runs hotter than a typical blend.
The Anolon pan's Kitchen card says "pan" instead of "skillet".

Semi-healthy.com October 4, 2026 Iteration 21

"Pan" everywhere, not "skillet"

21 recipes now say "pan" instead of "skillet", in line with the rest of the site, and the one recipe that named a pan size now just says "large".

Semi-healthy.com October 3, 2026 Iteration 20

Korean Black Bean Chicken retuned, Dan Dan with peppercorn powder, tighter tab icon

Korean Black Bean Chicken is retuned from real cooking: 1 cup water instead of 2 cups water or broth, a whole head of cabbage, and plain 2 tbsp of soy sauce, sugar and oyster sauce. It's out of work in progress.
Dan Dan Noodles now uses Sichuan peppercorn powder, stirred in for the last few seconds so it doesn't burn.
The browser tab icon is cropped tighter, so the leaf fills the tab.

Semi-healthy.com September 29, 2026 Iteration 19

Twenty recipes rewritten in plain steps, and a smarter shopping list

Twenty recipes are rewritten in plain, full-sentence steps with the same amounts, including Thai Red Curry Beef, Chicken Marsala, Mississippi Pot Roast Sliders, Salmon Chowder, Chimichurri Swai, Ropa Vieja and Pinto Beans. A few gaps are filled: Pad Prik King's bell pepper now goes in, and Beef Rendang lists its lime juice.
New "Make it healthier" versions: Salmon Patties with flax and chia, Mashed Cauliflower with olive oil and Greek yogurt, and Chicken Marsala with light pasta.
Thai Peanut Noodle now uses rice noodles, with light spaghetti when healthier.
Brand names moved out of the ingredients and into helpful notes, like where to buy curry paste.
The Meal Planner's shopping list adds up plain counts: "4 jalapeños" and "2 jalapeños" make "6 jalapeños", and "12 large eggs" and "2 hard-boiled eggs" are just eggs.

Semi-healthy.com September 29, 2026 Iteration 18

Every recipe cleaned up to one standard

Every recipe's method is numbered now, and only real section headings show in bold. No more random bold steps.
Recipe notes show as a tidy bulleted list.
One amount per ingredient: "2 bay leaves", not "1–2". Chilies, water and "to taste" still give a range, so you can set the heat and the thickness.
"Optional" is written one consistent way across about 45 recipes, without the sales pitches.
Pans are just "large", not a size you'd have to measure.
Reworked recipes:
- Tuna Macaroni Salad: rewritten, with two cans of tuna.
- Thai-Style Celery Tenderloin Stir-Fry: rewritten, with 24 oz of beef.
- Salmon Chowder: tidied.
- Thai Peanut Noodle: now uses rice noodles, plus a second soy sauce.
New "Make it healthier" versions:
- Tomato Basil Soup and Yogurt Cheesecake Bake: skip the cream.
- Thai Peanut Noodle and Tuna Macaroni Salad: light pasta.
Healthier versions now describe the sweetener as "low-calorie".
Chicken Marsala has a new photo.

Semi-healthy.com September 28, 2026 Iteration 17

Cook times up front, and a better Mexican Rice

Every recipe card shows how long it takes, in a badge on the photo, and every recipe shows "Total time" right under its title. Long recipes read "3 hr 30 min" instead of "210 min".
All 87 recipes now have a time. The nine that were missing one got it worked out from their own steps, from 10 minutes for Guerra Massala to 8 hours for the overnight Afghan Chicken.
Mexican Rice is reworked: the right amount of liquid (1 cup tomato sauce and 1 cup chicken broth) so the rice cooks up fluffy instead of mushy, no added salt on top of the bouillon, and clearer steps. Its new "Make it healthier" version adds cauliflower rice and uses water.

Semi-healthy.com September 27, 2026 Iteration 16

Cleaner recipe steps, a lighter Cajun Pasta

Recipe steps that were written in bold no longer pose as section headings. The site now tells a heading ("Make the dressing") from a bolded instruction ("Mash the avocado until smooth") on its own, which cleaned up 24 steps across 15 recipes at once, with no hand edits to the recipes.
Cajun Pasta has a "Make it healthier" switch: 6 oz spinach in place of the heavy cream, and light pasta. The sausage is now measured as 12 oz.
Cucumber Kimchi is rewritten in plain, friendly steps, and its "Make it healthier" version also skips the sesame oil and seeds.
Tidier recipes: Dixie Chick Style Tuna Salad, Tuna Macaroni Salad, Spicy Galbi-Style Chicken, Glazed Ahi Tuna, Harissa Shrimp and Cajun Cabbage and Sausage lost stray notes and asides; instructions written with arrows now use words; Cantonese Chicken Thighs uses 20 oz of chicken.
Garlic is given as one amount (the top of any old range) in nine recipes.
Meal Planner shopping list: amounts written as ranges ("2–3 tbsp water") now add up with the same ingredient from other recipes, counting the higher number.

Semi-healthy.com September 18, 2026 Iteration 11

Fonts fixed, a proper site icon, new product photos, and privacy

The site's own fonts (Fraunces for headings, DM Sans for text) load again. Since the project folder moved on 2026-09-14, the pages had pointed browsers at font files on the Owner's computer, which also put a private folder path in every page. Both are fixed.
A proper site icon: the Semi-healthy leaf in the browser tab, on iPhone home screens, and for Android. There's also a real favicon.ico, which the site never had.
New photos for the De Buyer carbon steel pan, the Lodge Dutch oven, and the Ninja blender and food processor. The old Amazon listing photos for three of them are no longer on the site.
Amazon links now use the site's own semi-healthy-20 tracking ID.
Every deploy now runs a privacy check first and stops if the Owner's name or email would appear.

Semi-healthy.com September 16, 2026 Iteration 10

Make it healthier, and numbered steps

Tuscan Chicken Pasta has a "Make it healthier" switch that swaps in a lighter version: half the bacon and cream, and fewer oil-packed tomatoes. Each changed ingredient shows its original amount underneath. More recipes get the switch as they're written.
Its method is now a clean numbered list. Steps that used to show up in bold by accident are ordinary steps again. The rest of the recipes switch to numbered steps over the coming updates.
The recipe is now written for a carbon steel pan (or a Dutch oven for more room), and its useful products list the pan and the Dutch oven.
Across the site, recipes list the carbon steel pan only once, and wok recipes link to a wok.

"Make it healthier" flipped on and off on the live Tuscan Chicken Pasta: the bacon, cream and tomatoes drop to lighter amounts, each with its original amount underneath. Recorded 2026-09-26; it replaces the full-page before/after stills (008/009), which didn't draw the eye to the switch.

Semi-healthy.com September 16, 2026 Iteration 8

De Buyer carbon steel pan in the Kitchen

Added the De Buyer Mineral B carbon steel pan (12" and 14") to the Kitchen picks, linked from all 30 recipes that sear.
Fixed product-link priority so a recipe's most relevant tool isn't pushed out by the three-link limit.
Live on semi-healthy.com since the 2026-09-16 deploy (checked on the live site).
The card now shows the pan itself, made with image generation, instead of a placeholder (live since the 2026-09-18 deploy, entry 11).

Semi-healthy.com September 15, 2026 (approximate) Iteration 6

Recipe fixes and a more careful recipe importer

Fixed recipe steps and headings that were being dropped or put in the wrong place when recipes were imported, across more than a dozen recipes.
"Light" pasta and noodle swaps are now applied consistently, each linked to the Carbe Diem pasta pick.
Individual fixes: Cantonese Chicken Thighs; Pesto and Red Pesto measurements; Southern Stewed Chicken and Gravy made consistently boneless and skinless, with shorter cooking times; Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken's chicken back in the ingredient list; Chicken Kofte renamed "with Cucumber Sauce."
Decorative emoji and leftover drafting notes removed from recipe text.

Semi-healthy.com September 13, 2026 Iteration 5

Built for phones

The menu button works on phones (it previously did nothing).
Pages load much faster on phones: photos load as you scroll instead of about 80 at once.
A recipe's Share, Print and Close buttons no longer sit on top of the recipe text while you scroll.
A full-width search bar, tighter spacing, phone-sized headings, and a working filter button.

Semi-healthy.com September 13, 2026 Iteration 4

Live on semi-healthy.com

semi-healthy.com moved off Squarespace and now serves the new site.
Every recipe has its own link and a Share button, and shared links show a proper preview card with the dish's photo.
A Contact form that actually sends, and a Donate section.

Semi-healthy.com September 13, 2026 Iteration 3

Kitchen and Pantry picks, sorted by use

Ten pantry products from the old site were carried over.
Kitchen and Pantry cards are sorted by how many recipes use them, and each card says how many recipes that is (it used to read "Used in undefined").
Cleaner cards: shorter titles, and the badge no longer covers the photo.

Semi-healthy.com September 13, 2026 Iteration 2

Easier tag browsing

"More tags" now opens a panel with every tag instead of pushing the recipes down the page.
Cuisine became a filter tag.
Tags that differed only in capitalization or hyphenation were merged (Air Fryer, Slow Cooker, Pressure Cooker, Carbon Steel Pan), and an unused tag was removed.
Suya now calls for a carbon steel pan instead of cast iron.

Semi-healthy.com September 2, 2026 Iteration 1

The rebuilt Semi-healthy.com

Semi-healthy.com was rebuilt from scratch as a searchable recipe box, generated from a shared folder of recipe documents instead of hand-built pages.
Search by ingredient, craving, cuisine or cooking method, and narrow down with tags.
Recipes print cleanly, and ingredient lists work as on-screen checklists.
Kitchen and Pantry sections list the tools and ingredients the recipes actually use.