diff --git a/database.py b/database.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3fa7c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/database.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+import psycopg2
+
+## global connection
+conn = psycopg2.connect("dbname=hanab-live user=postgres")
+
+## cursor
+cur = conn.cursor()
+
+## check if table exists, else create it
+cur.execute("SELECT EXISTS (SELECT FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = 'public' AND tablename = 'games');")
+a = cur.fetchone()
+
+if a[0] is False:
+    print("creating table")
+    cur.execute(
+            "CREATE TABLE games ("
+                "id             SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,"
+                "num_players    SMALLINT NOT NULL,"
+                "seed           TEXT     NOT NULL,"
+                "score          SMALLINT NOT NULL,"
+                "variant_id     SMALLINT NOT NULL,"
+                "deck_plays     BOOLEAN,"
+                "one_extra_card BOOLEAN,"
+                "one_less_card  BOOLEAN,"
+                "all_or_nothing BOOLEAN,"
+                "num_turns      SMALLINT"
+            ");")
+    conn.commit()
+else:
+    print("table already exists")