CJ_COIMBRA

You will also need iOS devices of all kinds that you are going to support. The simulator is very useful but it can't be used safely to do all the testing (because of real scenario performance tests in example), that's why you need real iOS devices.

There is a crossfade feature for 3D models but I dont think there is something similar for 2D animation out-of-the-box. Perhaps you could animate parts of your texture separated?

Yes, it seems possible for 3-5 persons, even less.
As a technical outline suggestion, if you got frustrated may be you should pick an engine, like Unity3D, and try to start something with it. 

It stops working, but what kind of error do you get? Try putting some breakpoints and follow the execution step by step, also it would help us helping you by providing the piece of code you're trying to run. Perhaps it's not related to Code::Blocks at all.

A small part of the people from the studio I work started a fruit ninja clone/research and they did it in a couple months. We did a similar test with trying to reproduce the mechanics from angry birds and it was done in about a week. It's possible to achieve this with a small team but results may be different from the original game itself (Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds).

Should I pass the ContentManager down to the Tile in order for it to load the texture? Should I have another class (TileManager I suppose) load all the textures and then pass it to the Tiles?

I always pass my "ResourceManager" down to level that need to access some resource or exchange it at some point. I think it´s a good way to do it.

That´s kind of a huge task for a begginer as you described yourself. Sometimes starting projects that you will later discover cannot be completed will bring your motivation down. But hey, do whatever you find interesting with your time. You could start with getting assets loaded, render your sprites on screen and discard them when not needed anymore. You should be busy with that for some time.

Also, consider using some libraries such as SFML or SDL to simplify your tasks.

It´s looking good!

My biggest downsides are crappy 3D asset importing, and the whole way that project files are handled. Unity wants me to work out of a folder they manage, and it becomes a pain in the ass to manage files that are constantly changing, because I can't risk saving the only copy in the Unity folder in case it gets accidentally nuked.

Oh, I know precisely what you mean... Not mentioning that sometimes when you upgrade your Unity version it breaks your project.

Most of the time I work on Unity is because the company I work for currently uses it. Other than that it´s because of the cross-platform features that once you know how they work, they can really save some serious time.

* It is a harder to make 2D games with compared to other options such as GameMaker.

I agree. Not that it´s harder to learn, but 2D games made with Unity tend to have a worst performance. Unless you do a fake 2D game (with 3D flat geometry). This takes to the point I think is the main downside not only about Unity but with most engines out there: if you want to avoid problems you have to do everything the way the engine want´s you to do, which is a considerable downside in my opinion when you have to solve problems thinking out of the box. I guess you will have to do a pros/cons list and take your priorities in consideration. Of course there are huge advantages such as portability: with a relative low cost you can put your game on android/iOS with Unity.

Did anyone actually get an honest response like that ... ever?

I did once and I came back about a year later at the same company and got hired

Use SFML 2.0
This issue happened with SFML 1.6