Hello and welcome on this forum.
In RT vfx you are mostly working with textures, shaders and meshes. For mobile game the particles have to be less expensive on the hardware. You cant throw in as much particles as you would on a PC. You have to find balance between good look and playable framerate (this also apply to PC and Console games).
First you need textures for anything that isnt special. For something like burning wood you can generate a fire simulation in fumefx then render it and make a spritesheet. In the engine of your choice you will use particle system to make it move. There are many tutorials for this everywhere.
For more special effects like shockwave or force field you may need to combine mesh and texture with shaders.
For Unreal Engine example check imbue AoE ground attack on youtube (link below). Its unreal engine 3 (UDK) but particle and material editor are mostly the same in UE4. And he also uses maya to create mesh.
For Unity and 3ds max example check the Ink Brush effect tutorial. Shader forge unity plugin is used along with After Effects and 3ds max. You can find it under Resources category here on RTVFX.
You should download both Unity and UE4 to see which one you like more. Particle systems are mostly the same thing in every engine. Im using UE4 because it has material editor already integrated. In unity you have to write shaders or buy a node editor like shader forge to edit shaders.
Houdini has a free apprentice version so you can use it to learn the software. You can achieve some effects much faster in it but it has a steep learning curve. On the other hand it offers freedom which I didnt found in any other big 3D package like maya or 3ds max and thats why Im using it. However its not necessary to use it in RTFX production. You will probably create some effects much faster in a software you are already comfortable working with.
Here are some great resources:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Special_Effects
The gnomon workshop is paid but I think this tutorial is good. Other paid sites like pluralsight or cgcookie also have some tutorials for this.
For houdini I can recommend you these tutorials from the same author @Partikel
https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/houdini-vfx-games
Even if you dont use houdini these tutorials can help you for example modifying smoke alpha channel in UE4 to create fire, create simple spark texture using radial gradient node and many more. There is also a powerpoint presentation on the polycount wiki (link above) from crytek which shows how to create similar splash using 3ds max.
Also check the resources category here on rtvfx.
These are also good:
Check every tutorial, podcast, interview you can find even if its not for the effect you are trying to achieve. You will find a lot of useful tips and tricks hidden everywhere.
Use google a lot when learning new engine (or anything new to you). You will find answers quickly since a lot of people had problems while learning before. If you find yourself in situation where google can help then just ask here.
Good Luck and Have a Nice Day.
EDIT: Added more info.