I'm not sure if I fit in the 'Creative Coders' category, since though I was an aspiring artist prior to getting into development, I was never commercially successful at it, and I'm really not a good designer since I find commercial art pretty tedious.
Programming, however, is another thing altogether; within about a year of beginning from scratch, I got a job at one of the companies in this list (Mirada) leading development on an interactive storytelling app. One thing that I think gave me a good edge was some development experience in the entertainment realm -- I had made an iPhone app to help screenwriters organize their thoughts, and got a chance to make an app for a comic book trying to get off the ground.
I also know that we're currently looking for more iOS developers (especially with OpenGL experience) so the development side is only growing.