The folks who “make up” crossword puzzles refer to themselves with an interesting title:  “setters.”  That terms seems to me to be striving for cool.  Another terms I’ve seen used is “compiler.”  But that’s a little awkward.   Hence, I will use terms like “creator,” “designer,” and “maker.”  I suppose words like “nerd” and “freak” might be just as good.  And, I haven’t looked it up, but I suspect “cryptologist” is taken.