Hi guys, I'm trying to make a crossword puzzle game for practice.

Sorry but I've no idea on where to start.

It should be basic game where the user must enter the word in the correct place and nothing else. (I am sure you know how to play crosswords!)
I have to export it to Android and (if possible) to iOS.
 

What engine would I want use?

I thought to use Unity in order to develop it but I'm not very good with it (and, honestly, I don't like it that much)
How is Unreal Engine 4 with Basic 2D Games like this one? If I could use UE4 it would be better because I know more C++ than C#. 

I also thought about making this app with a "basic" IDE such as Android Studio (and) xCode but I would have to do the work twice and I want to avoid that if possible.

Does anyone know if there is a library or something useful for making crossword games?

Thank you very much for the answers and have a nice day!

I apologize for the bad English but I'm not American/English.

Edoardo

You will generally be more efficient working with tools you know better. So while you say you aren't very good with Unity, you're still likely better at it than Unreal (as it sounds like you've never used Unreal before). 

In Unreal this is something you'd probably build entirely in Blueprints, without ever needing to touch the C++ aspects of the engine.

Given that you want to support two fairly divergent platforms (iOS and Android), I think Unity is probably your best bet. The experience you gain building this game with Unity will, if nothing else, improve your ability to use Unity.

If it were me, I wouldn't even bother with a "game engine."  That's a lot of overhead with no benefit for a simple crossword game.  I would use a hybrid app framework such as Xamarin or Nativescript.  You can write one codebase, use basic native UI elements, and compile for both Android and iOS.  Nativescript uses Javascript/Typescript and a basic HTML-like markup for the UI.  Xamarin.Forms uses C#, .Net, and XAML for the UI.

I would probably recommend Xamarin specifically.  It is easier to get running right out of the box (setting up a Nativescript development environment will be a test of your patience) plus it is going to be more familiar to software developers (it uses Visual Studio, .Net, etc.) whereas Nativescript uses all web technologies (Javascript, Node, Angular, etc).

40 minutes ago, Edoardo396 said:

How is Unreal Engine 4 with Basic 2D Games like this one?

Like dropping a napalm bomb on a spider.

Unreal is a extremely powerful engine, advised for 3D games or 2D games with lot's of effects. Making this game on a engine like unreal is a practice in precision.

I think you should look into gameMaker for this or even just using OpenGL.

45 minutes ago, jpetrie said:

You will generally be more efficient working with tools you know better. So while you say you aren't very good with Unity, you're still likely better at it than Unreal (as it sounds like you've never used Unreal before). 

In Unreal this is something you'd probably build entirely in Blueprints, without ever needing to touch the C++ aspects of the engine.

Given that you want to support two fairly divergent platforms (iOS and Android), I think Unity is probably your best bet. The experience you gain building this game with Unity will, if nothing else, improve your ability to use Unity.

Actually, I have worked on some simple projects in Unreal and used both C++ and Blueprint, but in Unity I have never done something more than following tutorials because I found it "confusing".

11 minutes ago, missionctrl said:

If it were me, I wouldn't even bother with a "game engine."  That's a lot of overhead with no benefit for a simple crossword game.  I would use a hybrid app framework such as Xamarin or Nativescript.  You can write one codebase, use basic native UI elements, and compile for both Android and iOS.  Nativescript uses Javascript/Typescript and a basic HTML-like markup for the UI.  Xamarin.Forms uses C#, .Net, and XAML for the UI.

I would probably recommend Xamarin specifically.  It is easier to get running right out of the box (setting up a Nativescript development environment will be a test of your patience) plus it is going to be more familiar to software developers (it uses Visual Studio, .Net, etc.) whereas Nativescript uses all web technologies (Javascript, Node, Angular, etc).

Yes, I thought about that either but I'm at level zero and I should start learning both XAMARIN and "advanced" C# and I also want to practice on game engines (if possible). 

And I have never studied Javascript, Node, Angular, etc.. but I already know some c# 'cause we study it at school and it's more like C++. 

I apologize for the bad English but I'm not American/English.

Edo